David Letterman jokes about militant death threat (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) &ndash; Late-night TV comedian David <a href="http://www.autoparts-oem.com/piston-diesel-piston-c-15_17.html"><strong><img src="http://www.autoparts-oem.com/images/piston/215420-CUMMINS-NT855-forged-piston.jpg" border="0" alt="forged piston"/></strong></a> Letterman on Monday shrugged off a death threat made against him by a Muslim militant, joking on his show that his audience could &quot;shield&quot; him. Last week, the U.S.-based SITE intelligence monitoring group said a death threat against Letterman was posted on a website used by militants. The militant who made the threat, and was apparently angered by a joke Letterman made about the death of a leading member of al Qaeda killed in an air strike in Pakistan, called on Muslims in the United States to &quot;cut the tongue&quot; of the comedian and &quot;shut it forever.&quot; While taping an episode of CBS network's &quot;Late Show with David Letterman&quot; on Monday, the comedian addressed the threat during his opening monologue. &quot;Tonight, you people are more, to me, honestly, more than an audience ... you're <a href="http://www.autoparts-oem.com/piston-diesel-piston-c-15_17.html"><strong><img src="http://www.autoparts-oem.com/images/piston/6137-31-2110-KAMATSU-6D105-3-pistons-forged.jpg" border="0" alt="pistons forged"/></strong></a> more like a human shield,&quot; Letterman joked in front of audience members at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York where the show is produced. &quot;I'm so sorry, I'm a little late coming out. Backstage, I was talking to the guy from CBS. We were going through <a href="http://www.autoparts-oem.com/piston-diesel-piston-c-15_17.html"><strong><img src="http://www.autoparts-oem.com/images/piston/13101-634-671-HONDA-EB2-pistons-sale.jpg" border="0" alt="pistons sale"/></strong></a> the CBS life insurance policy to see if I was covered for jihad,&quot; Letterman said. Letterman went on to jokingly suggest the threat really originated from late night rival Jay Leno. Letterman's comedic take on the death threat will air on the &quot;Late Show&quot; on Monday night. An FBI spokesman said last week that the agency was looking into the militant threat against Letterman. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Peter Bohan)