She didn't believe those numbers. They came expecting to find a handful of men who could channel, otherwise they would have sent more than fifty women. Given that they often tried six women first or even only three, they could not have been expecting more than a dozen or so channelers. They had sufficient numbers to take them in for trials. The killing was the mission they set out to accomplish, not an expedient turned to when they realized there were too many to take alive.

They broke their own laws. There are no excuses. How can you excuse the Tower's turning to overt murder in a situation where it is not even the most cautious or advantageous approach, but you cannot excuse them being taken prisoner in very mild conditions. Aside from keeping them shielded and bound full-time, how else can the Black Tower keep their prisoners? Short of murder (which you can laugh off on the part of the Tower, and given what they were up to, would be fully justified in the Asha'mans' position), they have no permanent way of keeping the Aes Sedai out of trouble, and they used a very light hand with their captives. The uniformity of the orders given by their bondholders clearly indicates the captors are all adhering to an established and commonly held policy, rather than their whims.