Didn't Rumsfeld recently suggest that there is nothing wrong with planting false stories in the press, as long as the end result was to confuse or deceive the enemy?
I don't think you give the Administration enough credit. If Bush and his cohorts didn't want you to read about this, you wouldn't be reading about it.
What do you think would happen to the official who leaked this story if it was in fact not authorized? Don't you think that we would be reading about a Congressional investigation? Don't you think Bush would be publicly calling from someone's head? Don't you think that someone, even if was just a sacrificial scapegoat, would be getting canned or at least severly reprimanded? Has Bush or anyone in his Administration even criticized the publication of thsi story?