Sam Spade's San Francisco

"I am not a member of Al-Aqsa," said the 44-year-old Abu Aita, a member of a regional committee of Fatah, the ruling Palestinian party to which the militant group is loosely affiliated.

"It's a lie, the whole thing was a lie. We were betrayed by this guy when he said that he was a journalist," said Abu Aita, a Christian.

"We thought he was a foreign journalist and we hoped he would speak about our cause."

Abu Aita joins a long line of unwitting victims hoodwinked by the comedian, both during the filming of "Bruno" and his previous smash hit "Borat," which generated scores of lawsuits.

In "Bruno," Cohen poses as a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter who in one scene goes to interview a "terrorist" in his quest for fame.

"We thought: what could people see that they've never seen before on film," Cohen said on the Late Show with David Letterman recently. "And we thought one thing would be a comedian interviewing a terrorist."

During his interview with Abu Aita, Bruno asks to be kidnapped and suggests he and his colleagues shave their beards because "your king Osama looks like some king of dirty wizard or a homeless Santa" referring to Osama Bin Laden.

Asked by Letterman whether he thought Abu Aita and his associates would go see the film, Cohen said: "I hope to God not."

But Abu Aita said he has seen the full movie: "I didn't like any of it."

Neither did the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

A senior official with al-Aqsa told AFP the group has no official stance on the matter. But he did add: "This whole story is bullshit."