Letterman threat on Al Qaeda website is no laughing matter
(Read article summary)Letterman threat, by a blogger on an Al Qaeda message board, is being investigated by the New York Police Department and the FBI. The talk show host and comedian had joked about Al Qaeda leaders killed in US attacks, reportedly prompting the Letterman threat.
TV funnyman David Letterman gets fan mail all the time, plus crank notes and the occasional threat. They can make good grist for the next night’s show. But his latest viewer missive is a little creepy and a lot darker.
Someone calling himself Umar al-Basrawi posted a death threat on an Al Qaeda message board called shumukh al-Islam.
Because of jokes Mr. Letterman has made about Osama bin Laden and Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, another Al Qaeda leader killed by a US strike in Pakistan in June, Mr. Basrawi in essence put out a contract on the host of CBS’s “Late Show.”
“To the righteous Muslims in America: Isn’t there a man among you who can cut off the tongue of this lowly Jew and silence him forever?” he wrote. (Letterman was raised in the Presbyterian Church, but never mind.) “He showed his evil nature and deep hatred for Islam and Muslims.”
