TROOP CUTS IN IRAQ? Don Surber says we’ve heard this story before.

On the other hand, this story, not so much. More on that silence from James Taranto. And a roundup here.

But here’s some good news:

U.S. forces raided an al-Qaida hide-out northeast of Baghdad on Sunday and freed 42 Iraqis imprisoned inside, including some who had been tortured and suffered broken bones, a senior U.S. military official said Sunday.

Al Qaeda tortures people? Who knew? I wonder if they have a manual for that sort of thing?

MORE: A not-very-convincing claim that the torture manual is a fake. Could be, of course — but that’s not why the press isn’t covering it. If there were any actual evidence that it were a fake, they’d be slamming the Bush Administration with it, after all.