INDIANAPOLIS -- Vice President Dick Cheney defended the CIA's interrogation practices against suspected terrorists Thursday, telling Indiana soldiers and veterans that the agency's program has yielded intelligence that's averted deadly terrorist attacks.

Cheney spoke at the Indiana War Memorial to about 350 people, including American Legion members and about 150 Indiana National Guardsmen. He told them there's recently been a "good deal of misinformation" spread about the CIA's interrogation of terrorist suspects.

The vice president said those methods are classified but said none of them involve torture. He said the CIA's interrogation program has produced valuable intelligence on terrorist groups.

"The program is run by highly trained professionals who understand their obligations under the law," Cheney said. "The program has uncovered a wealth of information and has foiled attacks against the United States -- information that has on numerous occasions made all the difference between life and death. The United States is a country that takes human rights seriously. We do not torture."

The CIA's interrogation techniques have dominated the Senate's debate of President Bush's attorney general nominee, Michael Mukasey. Several Senate Democrats have said they will vote against Mukasey unless he unequivocally states that the practice of waterboarding is torture.

Waterboarding simulates drowning by immobilizing a prisoner with his head lower than his feet and pouring water over his face.

Cheney told the audience at the Indiana War Memorial's ornate auditorium that the CIA's interrogation methods are not the same as those used by the Department of Defense to extract intelligence from detainees captured in Iraq or Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

"The CIA program is different. It involves tougher customers -- men like Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, and it involves tougher interrogation," he said. "The procedures are designed to be safe, to be legal and they are in full compliance with the nation's laws and treaty obligations."

Cheney's speech before the American Legion, a national Indianapolis-based veterans group, comes a day before it begins a three-day National Americanism Conference. His appearance was invitation-only and was closed to the public.

About two dozen anti-war activists gathered outside the downtown war memorial to protest the vice president's speech and the war in Iraq, holding signs such as "Impeach Cheney, War Criminal" and "No Blood for Oil."

Following his Indianapolis speech, Cheney flew to Dallas to attend a private fundraiser for Texas Sen. John Cornyn and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Cheney was in Indiana last October to speak to Indiana National Guard troops at Camp Atterbury. He is the highest-ranking official ever to address the Indiana chapter of the American Legion.