"Otherwise you have the really problematic bottom line, which is that the Central Intelligence Agency is running a program that is killing significant numbers of people and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws,".
VOA: standard.2009.10.27
Instead, there were allegations that the line between policy and intelligence may have been improperly crossed.
Critics said Rice's comments were out of line with the true intelligence about the incident, and were an attempt by the administration to avoid tying it to terrorism.