By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct. 3, 2006 – It’s “perfectly understandable” that North Korea’s neighbors are concerned over that country’s announcement earlier today that it will test a nuclear weapon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today.
North Korea announced through its official news agency that it would test such a [...]

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2006 – A North Korean announcement that the rogue nation will conduct nuclear weapons tests is “troubling,” a senior Defense Department official said here today.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that if North Korea were to conduct such a test, “it would only further isolate them from the [...]

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2006 – Senior U.S. officials in Iraq are calling a four-point plan released yesterday by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to halt sectarian violence “a significant step in the right direction.”
Maliki’s plan, released yesterday, aims at uniting Shiite and Sunni parties to reduce and ultimately stop growing [...]

Special to American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2006 – Iraq’s army took a leap toward greater independent responsibility yesterday when the 1st Iraqi Army Division assumed operational control of another brigade.
Marines and soldiers of Regimental Combat Team 5, based in Fallujah, turned over operational control of Iraqi soldiers assigned to 4th Brigade to the [...]

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2006 – President Bush continued to shore up coalition support in the war on terror, meeting here today with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the two leaders reaffirmed their cooperation in overcoming extremism that threatens the Middle East.
The two leaders talked to reporters in the [...]

By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct. 3, 2006 – People who value freedom must stand up and defend it, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today.
Rumsfeld is in Nicaragua to attend the seventh conference of the Defense Ministers of the Americas. He met earlier today with Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos and [...]

By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct. 3, 2006 – More countries in Latin America are accepting the concept of civilian control of the military and committing themselves to supporting democratic institutions.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, here for a meeting of Western Hemisphere defense ministers, said he believes the concept of civilian control [...]

By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct. 3, 2006 – Twenty-six sailors who worked for Navy Adm. Timothy Keating in the Pentagon died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the building. Now Keating is responsible for protecting the U.S. homeland — and he said the memory of those 26 sailors motivates him [...]

By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct. 3, 2006 – Nations in this region are concerned over recent arms sales by Venezuela, several officials attending a security conference here said yesterday.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, along with defense ministers from 32 other Western Hemisphere nations, are meeting here this week to discuss issues [...]

American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2006 – Specially trained Iraqi security forces captured a terrorist suspected of attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces during an early-morning raid yesterday near Taji, U.S. military officials reported.
Iraqi forces, along with coalition advisors, conducted an air-assault near their objective, and quickly secured secondary objectives while detaining the suspect.
Multiple [...]