Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Lawmakers complained that President George W. Bush didn't act sooner to put his five-year-old program to wiretap international telephone calls of suspected al-Qaeda operatives in the U.S. under supervision of a secret court.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced questions about revisions to the surveillance program today as he testified for the first time before a Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Gonzales informed Congress yesterday that a secret intelligence court will now oversee the surveillance program begun after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

``It is a little hard to see why it took so long,'' said Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who chaired the panel until Democrats took control of Congress this month. ``There hasn't been a sufficient sense of urgency'' to ``get this job done faster,'' he said.

In a letter to Congress yesterday, the Justice Department said it was ``exploring options'' for judicial oversight at least four months before the program was disclosed in December 2005. A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge issued orders Jan. 10 authorizing the surveillance where the government had ``probable cause'' to believe one party to an international phone call or e-mail exchange was an al-Qaeda agent.

Gonzales said he disagreed with ``Senator Specter's innuendo that this was something we could have pulled off the shelf in a matter of days and weeks.'' The attorney general said a review of how to put the program began soon after he took office in 2005. ``We have been working on it for a long time,'' he said.

`Must Fully Inform'

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the panel's new Democratic chairman, said there were still many unanswered questions about the changes.

``The president must fully inform Congress and the American people about the contours'' of the court order ``authorizing the surveillance program but also the program itself,'' Leahy said.

Following a public outcry over the spying, Bush and his allies spent the past year defending the program's legality.

Bush said he had the power to conduct the surveillance under a congressional resolution authorizing the war on terrorism and under his constitutional role as commander-in-chief. The administration argued that it would be impossible to require a court order each time the National Security Agency wanted to wiretap international telephone calls of a suspected al-Qaeda agent.

Specter said ``heavy criticism the president took on the program'' was politically ``very harmful'' to Republicans in the November elections when Democrats won control of Congress for the first time in 12 years.

Secret Court

Under the new policy, the monitoring must be approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The court, created by a 1978 law, meets in secret at the Justice Department's Washington headquarters and has authority to approve government eavesdropping of U.S. citizens linked to a foreign power.

The Justice Department briefed the House and Senate intelligence committees on the change several days ago.

``It appears they have done a complete back flip,'' Leahy said yesterday following the announcement. ``But if they are doing a back flip toward following the law, that's a lot better than their original position.'' He said he would conduct ``meaningful oversight'' on the program.

Specter said yesterday on the Senate floor that ``there needs to be oversight beyond what has been disclosed in this letter'' from Gonzales. The shift ``is a significant first step,'' the senator said.

`Fundamentals' of Justice

Senator Charles Schumer, another Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said the change ``flies in the face of the fundamentals of American justice'' and should be preceded by a public debate.

``This announcement can give little solace to the American people, who believe in the rule of law and ask for adequate judicial review,'' said Schumer, of New York. ``And why it took five years to go to even this secret court is beyond comprehension.''

Some lawmakers said permitting court oversight of the program may defuse tensions in Congress over the issue.

``If it happens to be true, it solves most of our problems,'' said Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and the new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Even so, he said the shift in policy suggests ``a rather large inconsistency with what the administration said'' months ago.

The announcement is ``good news, it will help keep the country safe,'' said Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican and former Intelligence Committee chairman. Roberts said the change should eliminate any need for Congress to pass legislation concerning the program.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net; James Rowley at jarowley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 18, 2007 10:42 EST