MIAMI -- Two different stories are being told today about how Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti.

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U.S. Marines On The Ground In Haiti

On the one side is Rep. Maxine Waters of California, a strong supporter of Aristide and Haitian democracy, who, according to Aristide's attorney Ira Kurzban, had a cell-phone conversation with Aristide about how he left office. On the other side is the administration of George W. Bush, which reports that Aristide resigned and left of his own will.

"What the president 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.

Aristide has reportedly called both Water and New York Congressman Charles Rangel from the Central African Republic.

Kurzban also said that Aristide told Waters that he was flown around on a military plane for 20 or so hours and taken to the Central African Republic, where he is under house arrest.

Kurzban is now asking the State Department to make Aristide available in form of a news conference or press release so he can tell his story and assure supporters that he is alive.

Those in the Bush administration have said that Aristide willingly resigned and first asked for help to leave the country Saturday night. White House spokesman Scott McClellan characterized Kurzban's version of events as nonsense. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld commented on the story when asked it about at a news conference today.

"I don't believe that's true … I'd be absolutely amazed if that was the case," he said. "The idea that someone was abducted is just totally inconsistent with everything I heard or saw."

McClellan said that the story amounted to a "conspiracy theory," and said that it would not help the Haitian people.

Aristide had initially vowed to fight until his death, but apparently reconsidered his that decision after learning over the weekend that the United States would not protect him, an administration official said on condition of anonymity.

Guards from Aristide's security team, employed by the San Francisco-based Steele Foundation, asked the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince on Saturday whether they could count on American protection in the event of rebel hostilities at the presidential palace, the official said. Aristide's guards were told that no such protection would be provided, the official said.

Powell called former Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Calif., whom Aristide hired as a Washington lobbyist, the official said, and told him that the United States had no plans to protect Aristide.

At 1:30 a.m. Sunday, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice called President Bush to inform him that Aristide was resigning, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. Bush then called Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to authorize the deployment of the Marines.

The first group of Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., arrived Sunday night aboard an Air Force C-17 transport plane. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that the total number of Marines to be sent to Haiti had not yet been determined, but could approach 1,000.