President Bush signed an order for what eventually became known as the Terrorist Surveillance Program on October 4, 2001. “There was a discussion about whether Congress should be told. Bush agreed to inform only the leadership. [Vice President Dick] Cheney invited the Gang of Eight–leaders of both parties from both houses, plus chairmen and ranking minority members of the Intelligence Committees. Cheney and [National Security Agency Director Michael] Hayden explained the program and what it could do. ‘Do we need legislation?’ Cheney asked. Speaker Dennis Hastert [R-IL] said later that ‘everybody looked around the room and said no, I don’t think we need to.’ The lawmakers were forbidden to discuss the program with colleagues or aides, so they had no way to research more rigorously its legality. Indeed, virtually no one else would know about the program for years, not even some of Bush’s closest advisers. …Even [Secretary of State] Donald Rumsfeld was not informed at first, although the NSA reported to him. This would remain for four years one of the most protected secrets of Bush and Cheney’s war on terror.”
– Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Pages 164-165