The second major point on which the principals had agreed on March 10 was the need to crack down on terrorist organizations and curtail their fund-raising. The embassy bombings of 1998 had focused attention on al Qaeda's finances. One result had been the creation of an NSC-led interagency committee on terrorist financing. On its recommendation, the President had designated  Bin Laden and al Qaeda as subject to sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. This gave theTreasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) the ability to search for and freeze any  Bin Laden or al Qaeda assets that reached the U.S. financial system. But since OFAC had little information to go on, few funds were frozen. In July 1999, the President applied the same designation to the Taliban for harboring  Bin Laden. Here, OFAC had more success. It blocked more than $34 million in Taliban assets held in U.S. banks. Another $215 million in gold and $2 million in demand deposits, all belonging to the Afghan central bank and held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, were also frozen. After October 1999, when the State Department formally designated al Qaeda a "foreign terrorist organization," it became the duty of U.S. banks to block its transactions and seize its funds. Neither this designation nor UN sanctions had much additional practical effect; the sanctions were easily circumvented, and there were no multilateral mechanisms to ensure that other countries' financial systems were not used as conduits for terrorist funding. Attacking the funds of an institution, even the Taliban, was easier than finding and seizing the funds of a clandestine worldwide organization like al Qaeda. Although the CIA's  Bin Laden unit had originally been inspired by the idea of studying terrorist financial links, few personnel assigned to it had any experience in financial investigations. Any terrorist-financing intelligence appeared to have been collected collaterally, as a consequence of gathering other intelligence. This attitude may have stemmed in large part from the chief of this unit, who did not believe that simply following the money from point A to point B revealed much about the terrorists' plans and intentions. As a result, the CIA placed little emphasis on terrorist financing. Nevertheless, the CIA obtained a general understanding of how al Qaeda raised money. 

Question: "What was a result of the Embassy bombings of 1998?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "The President's designation of  Bin Laden and al Qaeda as subject to sanctions"

Response: yes
The modern Republic of Turkey dates only from 1923, but the history of the land within its borders stretches back to the dawn of humanity. Widespread finds of Stone Age implements in cave excavations show that Anatolia was already inhabited during the Middle of the Palaeolithic period (about 200,000 to 40,000 years ago). By Neolithic times, organized communities had arisen, such as the one at Çatalhöyük, near Konya, Turkey's most important prehistoric site. This town, which flourished between 6500 and 5500 b.c. , had flat-roofed houses of mud and timber decorated with wall-paintings, some of which show patterns that still appear on Anatolian kilims. The advent of the Bronze Age (about 3200 b.c. ), and the spread of city-states ruled by kings, is marked by the appearance of royal tombs containing bronze objects in such places as Troy in the west, and Alacahöyük near Ankara. Around this time the Sumerian civilization living in Mesopotamia (the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq) founded and developed the cuneiform script, the world's oldest form of writing on record. The technique was introduced by Assyrian traders 1,000 years later in­to Anatolia, where it was qui­ck­ly adopted by the indigenous Hatti people, who, at this point, had already reached an ad­­vanced state of civilization. The Hittites: The capital of the Hatti was Kanesh (modern Kültepe, near Kayseri). Cuneiform tablets found here record the arrival in Anatolia of warlike invaders around the second mill­ennium b.c. Their origins remain a my­s­tery (their written language was finally deciphered in 1915), but they came from the direction of the Caucasus moun­tains, spreading destruction and disorder throughout Anatolia. It was two hundred years before they were firmly entrenched in their newly conquered empire. The newcomers were the Hittites, and their domination of Anatolia can be divided into three distinct periods: the Old Kingdom (c. 1600–1450 b.c. ), then the New or Empire Period (c. 1450–1200 b.c. ), and the Late Hittite Period (c. 

Question: "When was the cuneiform script, the world's oldest form of writing on record developed?"

Response: "6500 b.c"
OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

A: no
Problem:  Paul put the despised watch away And laid out before him his array Of stones and metals, and when the morning Struck the stones to their best adorning, He chose the brightest, and this new watch Was so light and thin it seemed to catch The sunlight's nothingness, and its gleam.  Topazes ran in a foamy stream Over the cover, the hands were studded With garnets, and seemed red roses, budded.  The face was of crystal, and engraved Upon it the figures flashed and waved With zircons, and beryls, and amethysts.  It took a week to make, and his trysts At night with the Shadow were his alone.  Paul swore not to speak till his task was done.  The night that the jewel was worthy to give.  Paul watched the long hours of daylight live To the faintest streak; then lit his light, And sharp against the wall's pure white The outline of the Shadow started Into form.  His burning-hearted Words so long imprisoned swelled To tumbling speech.  Like one compelled, He told the lady all his love, And holding out the watch above His head, he knelt, imploring some Littlest sign.  The Shadow was dumb. 

Question: "What was Paul trying to make?"

Answer: "A jeweled watch"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: yes
Tropical climates are found around the equator. These climates have warm temperatures year round. Tropical climates may be very wet or wet and dry. Tropical wet climates occur at or very near the equator. They have high rainfall year round. Tropical rainforests grow in this type of climate. Tropical wet and dry climates also occur near the equator. They receive less rainfall. Most of the rain falls in a single season. The rest of the year is dry. Few trees can withstand the long dry season. The main plants are grasses. Dry climates receive very little rainfall. They also have high rates of evaporation. This makes them even drier. Deserts can get less than 25 centimeters of rain per year. Thats less than 10 inches per year. How much rain do you get at your house? 

Question: "How much rainfall do the deserts receive?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "Less than 10 inches per year"

Response:
yes