"There will come a time we can look back and say, 'Well, who should have done what when.' And it ought to be done," Clinton told ABC's "Good Morning America." "But now is not the time," he insisted.

Clinton's words appeared to be aimed at Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who called for a board of inquiry on Thursday into the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, saying the U.S. needed to find out why it was so vulnerable.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Clinton has seemed obsessed with dodging responsibility for any U.S. intelligence lapses, and has even stopped passers-by on the street to describe his own efforts to get bin Laden.