Ok, I wasnt there so i dont know much about the alaska incident, but i'll fill you in on prior events...
Sometime yesterday, three zoner expeditionary ships - one in a battlestar and the other two in battlestar advanced class ships - started camping planet manhattan. There was only one or two SA/LSF members on at the time... in fighters... so they couldnt possibly take out three battleships that obviously had hostile intentions.
The liberty factions warned the zoners that foreign battleships were banned from liberty (because they're paranoid and such) and several times ordered them out of liberty space, they did not comply for an hour or so, and finally left.
All three of them were sanctioned for the act, but it apparently gave them a grudge against liberty. I suppose they're the ones who started this war, using the reprimand against their bad form as the catalyst. I dont think many zoner players are involved, likely just them and a few of their other friends who were like minded or... hell.. just wanted something to do for a change rather than camp nomads all day long.
So what it looks like is that they declared war on liberty, and hoaxed the order and corsairs into assisting them with an attack. You guys appear to have been conned by allies... not very ally-ish of them.