The ostensible purpose of the recent videos that show the beheadings of two American journalists by Islamic militants is to deter attacks — your missiles on our positions will beget our knives on Western hostages — but the true aim is to spread dread and terror.

The video that became prominent last week is one of several on a new State Department YouTube channel in English aimed at disaffected young Western Muslims who may be wowed by the Islamic State’s battlefield momentum. The counter message is simple: These guys are lying to you, and if you go to Syria to fight Western oppression you’ll just end up killing innocent Muslims.

 Standing at the front of a conference hall in Doha, the visiting sheikh told his audience of wealthy Qataris that to help the battered residents of Syria, they should not bother with donations to humanitarian programs or the Western-backed Free Syrian Army. “Give your money to the ones who will spend it on jihad, not aid,” implored the sheikh, Hajaj al-Ajmi, recently identified by the United States government as a fund-raiser for Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.

While many around the web have questioned how just how "factual" some of the publisher's representations are, most can agree that its colouring books are in fact unique — albeit incredibly controversial.  The updated books are said to feature such topics as the release of Taliban prisoners for the freedom of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the Boston Marathon bombing, and, as Bell puts it, "these brutal people, these terrible humans on the planet called ISIS.”
 

The extremists who have seized large parts ofSyria and Iraq have riveted the world’s attention with their military prowess and unrestrained brutality. But Western intelligence services are also worried about their extraordinary command of seemingly less lethal weapons: state-of-the-art videos, ground images shot from drones and multilingual Twitter messages.

Australia has agreed to a U.S. request to help fly arms and munitions to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters battling Islamic State insurgents in northern Iraq, joining a coalition being assembled by Washington to mount what Prime Minister Tony Abbott called "humanitarian missions."  

This may be the best Ice Bucket Challenge to combine the viral video craze with what’s in the news right now.  Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have been mocked by one social media user who has imitated what an ISIS member would look like if he were to accept the challenge.