Jihadist calls for death to David Letterman over al Qaeda jokes

A threat posted on a jihadist message board has called for the death of David Letterman over his on-air jokes about Osama bin Laden and his one-eyed lieutenant Ilyas Kashmiri.

Umar al-Basrawi, the name used by the person behind the threat, was apparently a viewer of Letterman’s Late Show on CBS until his jokes celebrating the recent killing of Kashmiri, a senior al Qaeda leader killed June 3 in a U.S. air strike in Pakistan.

"I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, one of the lowlifes of the Jews, and one of their pigs, mocking one of the leaders of the mujahedeen," Umar al-Basrawi posted on the Shumukh al-Islam Web forum, as translated by the Site Monitoring Service.

“Is there not among you a Sayyid Nosair al-Mairi … to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever?” he posted on the website. Al-Mairi killed Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane in 1990, the Washington Post explains. Letterman is not Jewish.

Letterman, who is currently on vacation with the show on summer hiatus, has been targeted by other threats in the past.

In 2009, he was the target of a $2 million extortion attempt by a CBS News producer, who threatened to expose the talk show host’s sexual liaisons with members of his staff.

In 2005, a painter working at Letterman's ranch was charged with plotting to kidnap his son Harry and nanny.