Questions

1. __________________ is NASA’s newest spacecraft for carrying humans beyond low-Earth orbit.
a) Apollo
b) Orion
c) Explorer
d) Columbia

2. This is the first craft designed to carry humans to leave low-Earth orbit since the Apollo program’s final trip to the moon in December _______________.
a) 1969
b) 1972
c) 1992
d) 2008

3. This week, Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, Chairman of the ______________________, publicly opposed the release of the U.S. Senate’s report on CIA interrogation tactics.
a) Senate Intelligence Committee
b) House Appropriations Committee
c) House Ways and Means Committee
d) House Intelligence Committee

4. As a member of the congressional Committee, Mike Rogers is regularly briefed on intelligence assessments. He told CNN that U.S. intelligence agencies and ____________________ have said privately that the release of the report on CIA interrogations a decade ago will be used by extremists to incite violence that is likely to cost lives.
a) Iranian clerics
b) ISIS fighters
c) foreign governments
d) Dennis Rodman

5. The U.S. and _________________ ceremonially ended their combat mission in Afghanistan this week.
a) the EU
b) the UN
c) NATO
d) PETA

6. 140,000 troops were in Afghanistan in 2011. The coalition will maintain 13,000 after this drawdown. The mission is transitioning from a combat mission to a ______________________ role.
a) observer
b) training and support
c) law enforcement
d) conscientious objector

7. Six former directors and deputy directors of __________________ wrote an editorial this week in response to the Senate making public its report on the CIA treatment of terrorists following 9/11.
a) the FBI
b) the NSA
c) the CIA
d) the IRS

8. The directors expressly refuted the accusation made by the Democratic Senators that the CIA’s interrogation program was ineffective in producing intelligence. They list three successful outcomes of the interrogation program. Which one is not on their list?
a) Interrogations led to the rehabilitation of most of the senior members of al Qaeda.
b) Interrogations led to the capture of senior al Qaeda operatives, thereby removing them from the battlefield.
c) Interrogations led to the disruption of terrorist plots and prevented mass casualty attacks, saving American and Allied lives.
d) Interrogations added enormously to what we knew about al Qaeda as an organization and therefore informed our approaches on how best to attack, thwart and degrade it.

9. LaWS is the U.S. Navy's new laser weapon that is currently on the USS Ponce which is stationed in:
a) the Korean Peninsula
b) the Caribbean
c) the Horn of Africa
d) the Persian Gulf

10. Which is not true of LaWS?
a) It is capable of disabling incoming planes or speedboats that could pose a threat to a ship by firing an invisible ray that can target engine systems with incredible precision.
b) It will be used to directly target people on incoming ships and planes.
c) The deployment of the laser weapon has cost $40 million so far and Klunder estimated that each laser burst costs 59 cents.
d) The laser is controlled by a sailor who sits in front of monitors and uses a controller similar to those found on an XBox or PlayStation gaming systems.