U.S. Pulls Some Diplomats from Saudi, Warns Americans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States ordered nonessential diplomats out of Saudi Arabia on Thursday and warned all Americans they should leave, citing fresh signals that attacks are planned on U.S. and Western interests.

The decision requires the families of all diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran to leave the kingdom, which is battling a wave of violence believed linked to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. …

“The U.S. government has received recent and credible information indicating that extremists are planning further attacks against U.S. and Western interests,” the State Department said in a travel warning.

“The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer travel to Saudi Arabia. Private American citizens currently in Saudi Arabia are strongly urged to depart,” it added.

“We are concerned. The threat level has gone up,” Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters.

And meanwhile, JihadTV uses Western technology to incite the mujahideen to violence: Rumsfeld: Al-Jazeera is disgraceful.

US Secretary of Defense called the pan-Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable” for reporting that US and coalition troops were killing and terrorizing Iraqi citizens.

Rumsfeld, speaking to reports at a Pentagon press conference Thursday, was reacting to a question posed as to the accuracy of Al-Jazeera reports saying hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in the fighting in Falluja.

“Its disgraceful what that station is doing,” Rumsfeld said, adding, “They are simply lying.”

Al-Jazeera is by far the most widely watched news network in the Arab world.

The US-led coalition in Iraq and the Iraqi Governing Council threatened Monday to ban the Arab world’s leading satellite news channels al-Jazeera and al-Arabiyeh reporters from Iraq for ratcheting up sectarian strife in this war-torn country, according to a leading government official.

For almost a week, until the Marines began to take on embedded reporters, the two channels were among the handful transmitting news from the battleground town of Falluja.

Their frequent use of the term “massacre” and their ongoing use of images of bloodied women and children has led US officials in Iraq to question the balance of their reporting.