Cheney says states should decide on marriage

"I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone," Cheney said in a speech at the National Press Club. "I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."

Cheney, who has a gay daughter, said marriage has always been a state issue.

"And I think that's the way it ought to be handled today, that is, on a state-by-state basis. Different states will make different decisions. But I don't have any problem with that. I think people ought to get a shot at that," he said.

Cheney's stance runs counter to the views of many Republicans and social conservatives. He said generally the same thing during the 2004 campaign, but couched his position by noting that President George W. Bush set administration policy and Bush favored a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Cheney spent most of his speech, and during the questions and answers that followed, defending the Bush administration's policies against terrorism.

But he disavowed intelligence he once cited to suggest that Saddam Hussein collaborated with Al Qaeda to stage the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Cheney said that information by the Central Intelligence Agency of collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda on the attacks "turned out not to be true." Still, Cheney said a longstanding relationship existed between Hussein and terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, that justified the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"There was a relationship between Al Qaeda and Iraq that stretched back 10 years," he said. "That's not something I made up."