Aristide claims that the US kidnapped him:

With U.S. military forces already on the ground in the Caribbean nation and more on the way, chief presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said, "It's nonsense, and conspiracy theories do nothing to help the Haitian people move forward to a better more free, more prosperous future."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also vehemently denied that Aristide had been forced out by the United States, and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) forcefully denied it as well, saying that Aristide boarded the plane willingly.

McClellan told reporters that Aristide left on his own free will. "We took steps to protect Mr. Aristide and his family so they would not be harmed as they departed Haiti," he said.

Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon news conference, said he was involved in the diplomatic flurry preceding Aristide's departure, and "the idea that someone was abducted is inconsistent with everything I saw."

"I don't believe that's true, that he's claiming that," Rumsfeld said. "I would be absolutely amazed if that were the case."

Who to believe? Maxine Waters is involved so I tend to lean toward our President:

What the president (Aristide) has told Maxine Waters is that the officials from the U.S. Embassy and others came into his house, told him he that was going to be executed, told him that his wife was going to be executed and his followers were going to be executed, and he had to leave the country immediately. And that when he resisted during that, they brought in the Marines to forcibly take him out," said Aristide's lawyer, Ira Kurzban.

It's so nice to see that Bill Clinton had that natural touch for ensuring the survival of democracy. It seems to me that Aristide is attempting to make himself look less cowardly then he was in reality.