The barbarians behind ISIS know the power of video. They have killed thousands, taken cities, and been accused of ethnic cleansing. But they really moved to the front of American consciousness with the videotaped beheading of an American journalist. From David Carr in the NYT: “What they made are modern media artifacts being used to medieval ends. The videos serve as both propaganda and time machine, attempting to wipe away centuries of civilization and suggest that the dreamed-of caliphate flourishes and blood is cheap currency.”

+ “The woman said her captors had initially confiscated her mobile and those of all the other women, but had then changed strategy, returning the phones so that the women and girls could recount to the outside world the full horror of what was happening to them.” A Yazidi girl tells of horrific ordeal as ISIS sex slave.

+ The New Yorker: Inside the failed raid to save Foley and Sotloff.