After the August missile strikes, diplomatic options to press the Taliban seemed no more promising than military options. The United States had issued a formal warning to the Taliban, and also to Sudan, that they would be held directly responsible for any attacks on Americans, wherever they occurred, carried out by the  Bin Laden network as long as they continued to provide sanctuary to it. For a brief moment, it had seemed as if the August strikes might have shocked the Taliban into thinking of giving up  Bin Laden. On August 22, the reclusive Mullah Omar told a working-level State Department official that the strikes were counterproductive but added that he would be open to a dialogue with the United States on  Bin Laden's presence in Afghanistan. Meeting in Islamabad with William Milam, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Taliban delegates said it was against their culture to expel someone seeking sanctuary but asked what would happen to  Bin Laden should he be sent to Saudi Arabia. Yet in September 1998, when the Saudi emissary, Prince Turki, asked Mullah Omar whether he would keep his earlier promise to expel  Bin Laden, the Taliban leader said no. Both sides shouted at each other, with Mullah Omar denouncing the Saudi government. Riyadh then suspended its diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime. (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates were the only countries that recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.) Crown Prince Abdullah told President Clinton and Vice President Gore about this when he visited Washington in late September. His account confirmed reports that the U.S. government had received independently. Other efforts with the Saudi government centered on improving intelligence sharing and permitting U.S. agents to interrogate prisoners in Saudi custody. The history of such cooperation in 1997 and 1998 had been strained. Several officials told us, in particular, that the United States could not get direct access to an important al Qaeda financial official, Madani al Tayyib, who had been detained by the Saudi government in 1997.67Though U.S. officials repeatedly raised the issue, the Saudis provided limited information. In his September 1998 meeting with Crown Prince Abdullah, Vice President Gore, while thanking the Saudi government for their responsiveness, renewed the request for direct U.S. access to Tayyib. The United States never obtained this access. An NSC staff-led working group on terrorist finances asked the CIA in November 1998 to push again for access to Tayyib and to see "if it is possible to elaborate further on the ties between Usama bin Ladin and prominent individuals in Saudi Arabia, including especially the  Bin Laden family." One result was two NSC-led interagency trips to Persian Gulf states in 1999 and 2000. During these trips the NSC, Treasury, and intelligence representatives spoke with Saudi officials, and later interviewed members of the  Bin Laden family, about Usama's inheritance. 
What question would one ask from this paragraph?

QUESTION: Who told President Clinton that Riyadh had suspended relations with the Taliban regime?

Temperate climates have moderate temperatures. These climates vary in how much rain they get and when the rain falls. You can see different types of temperate climates in Figure 2.40. Mediterranean climates are found on the western coasts of continents. The coast of California has a Mediterranean climate. Temperatures are mild and rainfall is moderate. Most of the rain falls in the winter, and summers are dry. To make it through the dry summers, short woody plants are common. Marine west coast climates are also found on the western coasts of continents. The coast of Washington State has this type of climate. Temperatures are mild and theres plenty of rainfall all year round. Dense fir forests grow in this climate. Humid subtropical climates are found on the eastern sides of continents. The southeastern U.S. has this type of climate. Summers are hot and humid, but winters are chilly. There is moderate rainfall throughout the year. Pine and oak forests grow in this climate. 
What question would one ask from this paragraph?

QUESTION: What are some characteristics of Subtopical climates?

Convicted murderer Seth Baxter awakens chained to a table beneath a pendulum blade .  A videotape informs him that crushing his hands between the presses will release him ; he does so , but the blade still swings down and violently cuts him in half , while someone watches through a hole in the wall .  The scene cuts to Agent Peter Strahm , who kills Jeff Denlon in self-defense and is sealed in the sickroom .  He finds a hidden passage with a tape recorder that warns him to stay in the sickroom , but ignores it .  He is attacked by a pig-masked figure in the passage and awakens with his head sealed in a box slowly filling with water , Which he survives by performing a tracheotomy using a pen .  Outside the plant , Detective Mark Hoffman delivers Corbett Denlon to the police and claims they are the only survivors , and is shocked when Strahm is brought out alive as well .  Jill Tuck is met by John Kramer's attorney , who is administering his will .  She is left a box and a videotape , in Which John stresses the importance of the box's contents .  She opens it with a key hung around her neck and then leaves without disclosing its contents .  In a memorial service held for David Tapp , Steven Sing , Allison Kerry , Eric Matthews , and Daniel Rigg , the five officers killed in action , Hoffman is promoted to detective lieutenant .  He is informed of the death of Agent Lindsey Perez while taking Strahm's phone and goes to the hospital to meet Strahm , who says that Hoffman's name was Perez's last words . 
What question would one ask from this paragraph?

QUESTION: What happened to Peter Strahm who was confined in a sick room after he ignored the warning in the tape recorder?

Recommendation: Congressional oversight for intelligence-and counterterrorism-is now dysfunctional. Congress should address this problem. We have considered various alternatives: A joint committee on the old model of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy is one. A single committee in each house of Congress, combining authorizing and appropriating authorities, is another. The new committee or committees should conduct continuing studies of the activities of the intelligence agencies and report problems relating to the development and use of intelligence to all members of the House and Senate. We have already recommended that the total level of funding for intelligence be made public, and that the national intelligence program be appropriated to the National Intelligence Director, not to the secretary of defense. We also recommend that the intelligence committee should have a subcommittee specifically dedicated to oversight, freed from the consuming responsibility of working on the budget. The resolution creating the new intelligence committee structure should grant subpoena authority to the committee or committees. The majority party's representation on this committee should never exceed the minority's representation by more than one. Four of the members appointed to this committee or committees should be a member who also serves on each of the following additional committees: Armed Services, Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, and the Defense Appropriations subcommittee. In this way the other major congressional interests can be brought together in the new committee's work. Members should serve indefinitely on the intelligence committees, without set terms, thereby letting them accumulate expertise. The committees should be smaller-perhaps seven or nine members in each house-so that each member feels a greater sense of responsibility, and accountability, for the quality of the committee's work. The leaders of the Department of Homeland Security now appear before 88 committees and subcommittees of Congress. One expert witness (not a member of the administration) told us that this is perhaps the single largest obstacle impeding the department's successful development. The one attempt to consolidate such committee authority, the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, may be eliminated. The Senate does not have even this. Congress needs to establish for the Department of Homeland Security the kind of clear authority and responsibility that exist to enable the Justice Department to deal with crime and the Defense Department to deal with threats to national security. 
What question would one ask from this paragraph?

QUESTION:
What are two alternatives that Congress have considered?