He said the first person to tell him was done casually duing a long discussion...indicating perhaps it was a friend of his...who might have been currying favor, but assumed he wouldn't tell.
Then another "senior admin. official" confirmed it with a "oh you know about that" comment.
Then a third confirmed, the CIA official.
The "leak" might have been more negligent than purposeful. But maybe not.
Do you have a link to that BBC article???
For one of the the Beeb articles, this one was the one that sprang to mind immediately, click here.
And note the date of the article.