Depends on how much you believe what Dougherty told Picard, I suppose. I always thought he told Picard the truth, but that the Federation Council may have only known the plan in the broad strokes, similar to how Sisko briefed Starfleet in, "In the Pale Moonlight" but may not have been very detailed.
I was always darkly amused by the idea that when Our Heroes managed to contact Starfleet Command they'd come back with, "Dougherty is entirely authorized to do what he's doing; WTF are you doing???"
