Interesting view, my take from the movie was that the Admiral was acting under direct orders from the Federation Council.I just didn't think that it lived up to its title as the Admiral was clearly in the wrong and, apparently he wasn't entirely operating with full sanction and was easily overridden by the Fed Council...
Yeah, he might well have been acting with the authority of the Federation Council but it seemed awfully easy for Riker, et. al to change their minds when they discovered the truth of the situation. It makes me wonder whether or not the Federation Council actually knew everything about the operation and/or would have approved of it if they knew everything that Picard, et. al discovered.
They didn't, that was pretty clear in the film. Picard uncovered an illegal operation of a rogue Starfleet Admiral. Which is why they tried to kill Data when he discovered the holoship, didn't want Picard and the Enterprise to be involved in the first place, and then tried to destroy the Enterprise when they tried to contact the Council.