Not news in Washington

Front page stories about the War on Terror continue to be pessimistic as we've come to expect.  The Washington Post braces us for the civil war in Iraq, and highlights Democrats' disbelief that the Iraqi military can deal with it.  Democrats renewed their calls for a stealthy surrender.

Reed, Durbin and other Democrats urged Rumsfeld to tell the Iraqi leadership that the United States would soon begin to withdraw troops, as a means of gaining leverage to compel the Iraqis to form a compromise government. "If that real government doesn't materialize, we might be stuck" taking sides, Reed said in an interview.

But according to an Associated Press story that you can find if you know to look for it, Anbar Sunnis have declared war on al Qaeda, and a Sunni tribal leader boldly predicted that they will soon capture al Zarqawi.  Some might consider that fairly news worthy but not the Post

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Residents reported curious declarations hanging from mosque walls and market stalls recently in Ramadi, the Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The fliers said Iraqi militants had turned on and were killing foreign al-Qaeda fighters, their one-time allies.

A local tribal leader and Iraq's Defense Ministry have said followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, have begun fleeing Anbar province and Ramadi, its capital, to cities and mountain ranges near the Iranian border.

“So far we have cleared 75 percent of the province and forced al-Qaeda terrorists to flee to nearby areas,” said Osama al-Jadaan, a leader of the Karabila tribe, which has thousands of members living along the border with Syria.

He claimed his people have captured hundreds of foreigner fighters and handed them to authorities. The drive, dubbed Operation Tribal Chivalry, is designed to secure the country's borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to prevent foreign fighters from crossing in...

Al-Jadaan, the Anbar tribal leader, looked confidently to the future and – if his prediction comes true – what likely will be a hero's role in the eyes of the U.S. military.

“Under my leadership and that of our brothers in other tribes, we are getting close to the shelter of this terrorist,” al-Jadaan said of al-Zarqawi. “We will capture him soon.”

The Washington Post did not ignore the story completely, having picked it up at 6:28pm yesterday, well past the time it would get any significant attention in yesterday's news.  And today of course, it's old news.  Via Power Line.