WASHINGTON - May 21 - Today, Human Rights First's Chief Executive Office Elisa Massimino responded to former Vice President Dick Cheney's national security speech, stating:

"Former Vice President Cheney continued his pro-torture public relations push at the American Enterprise Institute today where we heard more of the same: unproven assertions that torture has kept America safe. In contrast, national security experts - interrogators from all branches of the government and military leaders who have served on the front lines -- know that torture produces unreliable information and puts our men and women in uniform at risk. President Obama, the man responsible for setting national security policy and upholding the Constitution, was right to reject these stale arguments of the past eight years in his speech this morning."