Cover-Up Alleged in Probe of USS Liberty

[Drift3r]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031023/ap_on_go_ot/spy_ship_israel_4

Cover-Up Alleged in Probe of USS Liberty
1 hour, 31 minutes ago

By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A former Navy attorney who helped lead the military investigation of the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that killed 34 American servicemen says former President Lyndon Johnson and his defense secretary, Robert McNamara, ordered that the inquiry conclude the incident was an accident.

In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference, retired Capt. Ward Boston said Johnson and McNamara told those heading the Navy's inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

Boston was senior legal counsel to the Navy's original 1967 review of the attack. He said in the sworn statement that he stayed silent for years because he's a military man, and "when orders come ... I follow them."

He said he felt compelled to "share the truth" following the publication of a recent book, "The Liberty Incident," which concluded the attack was unintentional.

The USS Liberty was an electronic intelligence-gathering ship that was cruising international waters off the Egyptian coast on June 8, 1967. Israeli planes and torpedo boats opened fire on the Liberty at what became known as the outbreak of the Israeli-Egyptian Six-Day War.

In addition to the 34 Americans killed, more than 170 were wounded.

Israel has long maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken identity, an explanation that the Johnson administration did not formally challenge. Israel claimed its forces thought the ship was an Egyptian vessel and apologized to the United States.

After the attack, a Navy court of inquiry concluded there was insufficient information to make a judgment about why Israel attacked the ship, stopping short of assigning blame or determining whether it was an accident.

It was "one of the classic all-American cover-ups," said Ret. Adm. Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a year investigating the attack as part of an independent panel he formed with other former military officials. The panel also included a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Akins.

"Why would our government put Israel's interests ahead of our own?" Moorer asked from his wheelchair at the news conference. He was chief of naval operations at the time of the attack.

Moorer, who has long held that the attack was a deliberate act, wants Congress to investigate.

Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev disputed any notion that Israel knowingly went after American sailors.

"I can say unequivocally that the Liberty tragedy was a terrible accident, that the Israeli pilots involved believed they were attacking an enemy ship," Regev said. "This was in the middle of a war. This is something that we are not proud of."

Calls to the Navy seeking comment were not immediately returned.

In Boston's statement, he does not say why Johnson would have ordered a cover-up. Attempts were made to reach Boston at his home in Coronado, Calif., but he did not return calls seeking comment.

Moorer's panel suggested several possible reasons Israel might have wanted to attack a U.S. ship. Among them: Israel intended to sink the ship and blame Egypt because it might have brought the United States into the 1967 war.

 

[lozina]

Israeli Pilot Speaks Up

Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey about his role. According to this senior Israeli lead pilot, he recognized the Liberty as American immediately, so informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do so and returned to base, where he was arrested.

Later, a dual-citizen Israeli major told survivors that he was in an Israeli war room where he heard that pilot's radio report. The attacking pilots and everyone in the Israeli war room knew that they were attacking an American ship, the major said. He recanted the statement only after he received threatening phone calls from Israel.

http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0693/9306019.htm

 

[lozina]

The flipside:

According to Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs, there were standing orders to attack any unidentified vessel near the shore.1 The day fighting began, Israel had asked that American ships be removed from its coast or that it be notified of the precise location of U.S. vessels.2 The Sixth Fleet was moved because President Johnson feared being drawn into a confrontation with the Soviet Union. He also ordered that no aircraft be sent near Sinai.

A CIA report on the incident issued June 13, 1967, also found that an overzealous pilot could mistake the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, the El Quseir. After the air raid, Israeli torpedo boats identified the Liberty as an Egyptian naval vessel. When the Liberty began shooting at the Israelis, they responded with the torpedo attack, which killed 28 of the sailors.

Initially, the Israelis were terrified that they had attacked a Soviet ship and might have provoked the Soviets to join the fighting.3 Once the Israelis were sure what had happened, they reported the incident to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and offered to provide a helicopter for the Americans to fly out to the ship and any help they required to evacuate the injured and salvage the ship. The offer was accepted and a U.S. naval attaché was flown to the Liberty.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/liberty.html

 

[lozina]

Those two sites being biased, this site seems to have alot of information sparing you the rhetoric and suggestion.

http://www.thelibertyincident.com

 

[Aegion]

There has been rather recently released NSA intercepts that provide strong evidence that the attack was an accident.

For years conspiracy theorists have claimed that audio tapes existed of the Israeli pilots identifying the ship as American before they attacked. There are other conspiracy claims that the Liberty radio compartment made such interceptions and that the U.S. submarine Amberjack had gathered damning evidence during the attack by means of its periscope."

"On July 2, 2003, as a result of my lawsuit using the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Agency made two significant admissions. First, that there had been no radio intercepts made by the USS Liberty. Second, that there had been no radio intercepts made by the US submarine Amberjack. And finally, the National Security Agency released copies of the recordings it made from an EC-121 aircraft in the vicinity of the attacks during the time periods 2:30 p.m. Sinai time to 3:27 p.m. Sinai time. These tapes contain nothing to support the prior conspiracy claims and show that the helicopters were first dispatched to rescue Egyptians, and then demonstrate the confusion as to the identification of the target ship."

Cristol adds: "The tapes confirm that the helicopter pilot observed the flag at 3:12 p.m. This perfectly dove-tails with the audio tapes which the Israel Air Force released to Judge Cristol of the radio transmissions before, during and after the attack. The English translations of those tapes are published in Appendix 2, of Judge Cristol's book "The Liberty Incident". The NSA tapes are the last significant piece of evidence which remained classified until now. They clearly corroborates the Israeli Air Force tapes and support the decisions of ten official U.S. investigations and 3 or more official Israeli investigations, all of which concluded that the tragic event was a case of mistaken identity."

http://www.israelnewsagency.com/ussliberty.html

The article also links to the NSA site and the data they are talking about. I saw an AP article with the same conclusion on the data released when the information was originally released.

 

[replicator]

Wow. I wonder what this would do to current US-Israel relations if the cover-up is proved to be true.

It is hard to believe that Israel did not know it wasn't an American ship even with the NSA report. If they had this information before, wouldn't they have somehow used it to defend themselves?

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: replicator
Wow. I wonder what this would do to current US-Israel relations if the cover-up is proved to be true.

Neither side would know anything that they didn't already know before.

 

[Witling]

I'm inpressed with the disparity in the reports. But, Replicator, one of two mutually exclusive conditions exists. Either there is a cover up or there is not. If there's a cover up, the U.S. government already knows it and isn't going to do squat. If there wasn't a cover up, there's no need to do squat. I've heard many different things about this attack but don't actually know any facts. I do know however, that aircraft had the capacity to turn on an IFF transmitter that would identify the plane as a friendly. I do not know if ships had the same capability. It is very, very difficult to believe that they confused a U.S. ship with an Egyptian ship.

 

[LilBlinbBlahIce]

Originally posted by: Whitling
I'm inpressed with the disparity in the reports. But, Replicator, one of two mutually exclusive conditions exists. Either there is a cover up or there is not. If there's a cover up, the U.S. government already knows it and isn't going to do squat. If there wasn't a cover up, there's no need to do squat. I've heard many different things about this attack but don't actually know any facts. I do know however, that aircraft had the capacity to turn on an IFF transmitter that would identify the plane as a friendly. I do not know if ships had the same capability. It is very, very difficult to believe that they confused a U.S. ship with an Egyptian ship.

Hey, if it could have brought the US into the war on the Israeli side do you think they would think twice about blowing up one of our vessels? I think not. Their only problem was that the ship didnt sink so they could not blame it on the Egyptians.

 

[Aegion]

Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce
Hey, if it could have brought the US into the war on the Israeli side do you think they would think twice about blowing up one of our vessels? I think not. Their only problem was that the ship didnt sink so they could not blame it on the Egyptians.

Of course you're making the assumption that the Israelis could get away with this even it was absolutely clear that it was a deliberate Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.

The much bigger problem with this conspiracy theory is why the Israeli helicopters were sent out to rescue "Egyptians" according to the intercepted radio conversations. While the helicopter apparently saw the US flag at 3:12 p.m, it was actually sent out much earlier. You'd think under this conspiracy theory the Israelis would wait as long as possible to send out rescue personel period since they don't want survivors as witnesses.

The biggest problem with this conspiracy theory is the following. You're talking about an Israeli airforce who won the air campaign during the 6 day war with one of the most decisive outcomes in military history. Why would it take so long for the Israeli airforce to sink the ship? If you don't want witnesses, you drop some powerful bombs and missiles right on the ship that should be capable on sinking it immediately so you don't have to worry about failure. Why were the Israelis unable to do this given there otherwise observed competence during the war militarily? Even the eyewitness crew testimony of the USS Liberty crewmen does not agree with a military opperation designed to sink the USS Liberty as quickly as possible. This consipiracy theory just doesn't make any sense.

 

[Aegion]

Originally posted by: replicator
.
It is hard to believe that Israel did not know it wasn't an American ship even with the NSA report. If they had this information before, wouldn't they have somehow used it to defend themselves?

The Israelis DIDN'T have this information before. They may have had tapes of their own pilots' conversations, but obviously it could be argued that the Israelis deliberately falsified these after the fact. That's not possible with the NSA material unless you're assuming that the NSA is completely cooperating with Israel in order to cover the whole thing up. The information was classified and therefore not available for Israel to release to the public, nor was Israel likely aware of the material's contents, before it was released in July of 2003. (How would Israel know what radio conversations the NSA intercepted?)

 

[Shad0hawK]

you guys act as if this is a new thing.

lets use a little of that uncommon thing misnomered as common sense.

1. the only possible thing israel had to gain might be US entry into the war. there are problems with this theory though.

A. the war lasted 6 days with a very lopsided israeli victory, why would they need the US to intervene? the attack on the liberty occured on june 8th, which by that time the israeli victory was already assured. the cease fire being signed on june 10th.

B. if they were trying to pull america into the war by making us think egypt or syria attacked the ship, maybe they would have taken the star of david off thier jets and put egyptian or syrian insignia on instead.

 

[smashp]

The Truth is the Country of Israel is filled with russian jews who get a little too out of hand.

They didnt want the USs Liberty that close to land because it was a spy ship for the NSA.(this is before sats. folks).

The Israelis didnt want us seeing them "Teech The Eqyptians" a lesson to say. no witness, no warcrime.


Israel is a group of former russian commies. LOOK they are even Building another Beloved WALL.

 

[kage69]

Anyone seen the USS Liberty special on the History Channel before, the one where they interview sailors that were on board during the attack? A huge red, white, and blue flag flying amast, US Navy numbering on the hull, oh and then there were sailors actually calling out to the Israeli boats IN ENGLISH, identifying themselves and telling the Israelis not to shoot. What do the Israeli's do? Machine gun the lifeboats to oblivion. Sorry, but anyone who thinks it was "all just a misunderstanding" is either naive as hell or a complete moron. Israel has quite the competent military, I don't think anyone can argue that - are people really supposed to believe the Israeli Navy and Airforce confused the Liberty with an Egyptian vessel less than half the size of the Liberty, and even by Israeli reports carried no armament?

This government needs to stop supporting 'allies' that bite the hand that feeds and protects them. Almost as disgusting was the subsequent Jewish-American effort to discredit and villify the US sailor's accounts, at the direction of Tel Aviv.

 

[LilBlinbBlahIce]

Originally posted by: kage69
Anyone seen the USS Liberty special on the History Channel before, the one where they interview sailors that were on board during the attack? A huge red, white, and blue flag flying amast, US Navy numbering on the hull, oh and then there were sailors actually calling out to the Israeli boats IN ENGLISH, identifying themselves and telling the Israelis not to shoot. What do the Israeli's do? Machine gun the lifeboats to oblivion. Sorry, but anyone who thinks it was "all just a misunderstanding" is either naive as hell or a complete moron. Israel has quite the competent military, I don't think anyone can argue that - are people really supposed to believe the Israeli Navy and Airforce confused the Liberty with an Egyptian vessel less than half the size of the Liberty, and even by Israeli reports carried no armament?

This government needs to stop supporting 'allies' that bite the hand that feeds and protects them. Almost as disgusting was the subsequent Jewish-American effort to discredit and villify the US sailor's accounts, at the direction of Tel Aviv.

It's hard to discern people's true alliences sometimes, people like Perle and Wolfowitz drive that point home everytime I hear them speak.

 

[Aegion]

Originally posted by: smashp
The Israelis didnt want us seeing them "Teech The Eqyptians" a lesson to say. no witness, no warcrime.

Then why did their tactics not match leaving no witnesses????!!! If that's your strategy you drop some major bombs and sink the ship quickly. Basicly these conspiracy theories don't make sense.

 

[Aegion]

Originally posted by: kage69
Anyone seen the USS Liberty special on the History Channel before, the one where they interview sailors that were on board during the attack? A huge red, white, and blue flag flying amast, US Navy numbering on the hull, oh and then there were sailors actually calling out to the Israeli boats IN ENGLISH, identifying themselves and telling the Israelis not to shoot. What do the Israeli's do? Machine gun the lifeboats to oblivion. Sorry, but anyone who thinks it was "all just a misunderstanding" is either naive as hell or a complete moron. Israel has quite the competent military, I don't think anyone can argue that - are people really supposed to believe the Israeli Navy and Airforce confused the Liberty with an Egyptian vessel less than half the size of the Liberty, and even by Israeli reports carried no armament?

Fine explain the Israeli motivation for a deliberate attack, because I've seen absolutely none presented so far that's convincing. Machine gunning is vastly less efficient than simply dropping large bombs on the ship. If you want no witnesses you sink the ship as quickly as possible. Leaving the crew members around longer increases the risks of getting caught and wouldn't make. I don't see why the Israeli airforce and navy would be unable to sink the USS Liberty far more quickly if that was their goal. Basicly if you can't come up with of a plausibly logical reason for the Israeli attack, don't you have to assume it was a screw up, just as the NSA evidence presented earlier in this thread strongly suggested?

 

[Aegion]

Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce
It's hard to discern people's true alliences sometimes, people like Perle and Wolfowitz drive that point home everytime I hear them speak.

So its all a Zionist conspiracy in spite of the evidence to the contary? Is there anything behind you claims other than sheer anti-Semitism?

 

[kage69]

Fine explain the Israeli motivation for a deliberate attack, because I've seen absolutely none presented so far that's convincing. Machine gunning is vastly less efficient than simply dropping large bombs on the ship. If you want no witnesses you sink the ship as quickly as possible. Leaving the crew members around longer increases the risks of getting caught and wouldn't make. I don't see why the Israeli airforce and navy would be unable to sink the USS Liberty far more quickly if that was their goal. Basicly if you can't come up with of a plausibly logical reason for the Israeli attack, don't you have to assume it was a screw up, just as the NSA evidence presented earlier in this thread strongly suggested?

No, you don't have to assume that. You seem to be hinting that machine guns were the only things brought to bear against the Liberty. First hand accounts from survivors on both sides recount the Liberty being chewed up with not only basic 7.62mm machine guns, but also .50 and 20mm deck guns, 40mm rockets, and 5 FVCKING TORPEDOES! The Israeli boats attacking were withing 50ft. of the Liberty sniping at sailors and managed to miss both the ships flag and the 6 and 1/2ft letters stenciled on the side??!?

Open your damn eyes.




At the AFEI conference for Net Centric Operations 2003 on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 at Tysons Corner in Vienna, VA, Honorable John Stenbit, Assistant Secretary for Defense C3I, indicated that the Israelis made a very clear threat that if the US did not move the USS Liberty within 24 hours, they would sink it. His exact quote was: "The Israeli's told us 24 hours before that we had a ship called the Liberty, and if we didn't move it they would sink it. Unfortunately, the ship was not moved and by the time the message arrived the ship was taking on water." The agenda for the meeting can be found at http://www.afei.org/brochure/3af3/ .
We don't yet have the complete text of that presentation, but we DO have the complete text of a presentation Stenbit gave a month earlier, on March 13, 2003, at Harvard University in which he makes the same claim. You can view his remarks at:
http://home.cfl.rr.com/gidusko/liberty/stenbit.htm

 

[kage69]

So its all a Zionist conspiracy in spite of the evidence to the contary? Is there anything behind you claims other than sheer anti-Semitism?

Wtf are you using the word 'evidence' for, besides bringing to mind the mountain of it you ignore while looking to label what is anti-Israel with anti-semetic?

Many of the sailors onboard were Jewish, does them demanding an inquiry make them anti-semetic? You make me sick.

 

[Aegion]

No, you don't have to assume that. You seem to be hinting that machine guns were the only things brought to bear against the Liberty. First hand accounts from survivors on both sides recount the Liberty being chewed up with not only basic 7.62mm machine guns, but also .50 and 20mm deck guns, 40mm rockets, and 5 FVCKING TORPEDOES! The Israeli boats attacking were withing 50ft. of the Liberty sniping at sailors and managed to miss both the ships flag and the 6 and 1/2ft letters stenciled on the side??!?

Open your damn eyes.

Open your damm eyes!!! Where are the bombs dropped from Israeli planes if they wanted to sink the ship! The Israelis had them and complete control of the air at that point in the 6 day war, so why were they not sent? Sniping at sailors is inneficient if your goal is try ensure no survivors. You would want to just sink the ship and then take out anyone who survived the sinking if that is your goal. I'm assuming the 50 feet number is based on eyewitness testimony that both could be wrong, and may be intentionally so because they were angry at Israel for attacking their ship and wanted them to get in trouble by making it seem that Israel must have known.

As as to the rest of your statement, so what conspiracy theory are you claiming happened? It seems like the current strategy is to throw up enough med at Israel and hope some will stick. The get Egypt involved with the war theory is also even more discredited for the reason Shad0hawK mentioned, is this the one you are advocating or the second one? With the second one, you'd think that Israel would want the US government to know they sunk it, not try to cover it up as they supposed did with the first one. Give me a SINGLE conspiracy theory with a potential motivation for the act and we will talk about it.

 

[Aegion]

Originally posted by: kage69

So its all a Zionist conspiracy in spite of the evidence to the contary? Is there anything behind you claims other than sheer anti-Semitism?

Wtf are you using the word 'evidence' for, besides bringing to mind the mountain of it you ignore while looking to label what is anti-Israel with anti-semetic?

You make me highly annoyed. I was clearly talking about LilBlinbBlahIce accusing Perle and Wolfowitz as being loyal to Israel and not actually to the US. Given they are both, just US citizens who happen to be Jewish, you can't simply write that off as being anti-Israeli sentiment, particularly since he also said "people like" before the statement, leaving the possible implication he is refering to Jews in America in general actually just being loyal to Israel. He seemed to be suggesting that Jews in high places in the US government are responsible for covering up for Israel even though its against the interests of the US. I wasn't refering to the crewmen and what I quoted made that pretty obvious.

The evidence includes the NSA declassified intercept that I posted about earlier in this thread.

 

[kage69]

You're diverting away from the issue, by stressing your own self-imposed 'laws' and flawed reasoning you yourself brought into the discussion. Example.

You're talking about an Israeli airforce who won the air campaign during the 6 day war with one of the most decisive outcomes in military history. Why would it take so long for the Israeli airforce to sink the ship

That just so happens to be one of the many tactical advantages of a pre-emptive strike, funny you should ask! While Israeli pilots are to be respected, no argument there, their decisiveness was largely due to catching the opposition still on the runway. American jets and training didn't hurt either.
You also assume that the pilots would naturally be equipped with bombs, and that they are the best way to deal with a ship. While I don't pretend to know the tactical loadout for those missions the pilots flew, I do know bombs are not carried if the fighters role is air-superiority; they create too much drag and impede velocity and manueverability. Perhaps the fighters were there as cover, leaving the dirty work to the boats and torpedoes you've failed to address yet again. Somehow it's only the Israeli airforce that concerns you. I'd say lobbing 5 torpedoes at a ship is a pretty deliberate attempt to sink it. Do you even have any idea how powerful a 20mm round is? Those rounds were passing THROUGH the ship. Do you really consider using salvoes of 40mm HE rockets some anemic attempt at violence? You ought to be asking yourself, if the Israeli military is so proficient, how could they commit such a gross number errors for such a long span of time? This thing isn't about some lone foot soldier emptying a errant clip here.

I'm assuming the 50 feet number is based on eyewitness testimony that both could be wrong, and may be intentionally so because they were angry at Israel for attacking their ship and wanted them to get in trouble by making it seem that Israel must have known.

You're just trying your damnest to throw a nice flavor on this whole thing, aren't ya? No doubt the Liberty survivors would hold a grudge, what with their allies circling the boat for 75min shooting at anything that moved, and being extra sure to sink (and in one case, capture empty) the lifeboats...yeah, the ones that all had USS Liberty stenciled on them. It doesn't matter if they were 50, 100, or 150 ft away, the ship had a FLAG up; this one in particular is on display at Ft. Meade, about 10min from where I live. Trust me, it's not exactly a bumbersticker. The Liberty survivors have every reason to be upset, but as men seeking justice they would gain nothing by twisting the situation with misinformation.

As as to the rest of your statement, so what conspiracy theory are you claiming happened?

I didn't claim any conspiracy theory. Please point to what I said that made you think that, else I shall consider this just another diversion attempt. Since we're here though, let me pose one: conspiracy theories are founded on suspicion - what would make the American public suspicious of, oh say... The Navy conducting a farce of an inquiry; President Johnson addressing the American people and downplaying/misreporting the event; Israeli pilots being imprisoned for refusing to open fire; Israel's hilarious excuse as a whole; the curiously non-politcal and almost insulting grave stones for the dead;etc etc, you want'em I got more....

But again, your need for a conspiracy theory is irrelevent in the matter. Israel deliberately attacked the Liberty, sorry. The Liberty monitored and recorded the begining of the war, which made it anathema to Israel's desire to maintain the image of being ganged by it's Arab neighbors. It's hard to sell yourself as the victim when you're beating the other guys ass. The Johnson administration helped cover it up in exchange for Jewish-American support during the escalation of the Vietnam Conflict, the same lobby that spread lies of anti-semiticism about the Liberty crew and actively prevented them from publishing their own accounts of the incident.

 

[LilBlinbBlahIce]

Originally posted by: Aegion

Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce
It's hard to discern people's true alliences sometimes, people like Perle and Wolfowitz drive that point home everytime I hear them speak.

So its all a Zionist conspiracy in spite of the evidence to the contary? Is there anything behind you claims other than sheer anti-Semitism?

That is not what I said at all. I was referring to the statement that many Jewish Americans tried to sweep this incident under the rug, when, if their alliences were in the right place, they should have done everything in their power to demand a through investigation. I would make this same statement regardless of the religion in question. By brining up Wolfowitz and Perle, two staunch pro-Israeli people, I was referring to them pushing for the invasion of Iraq long before it became an issue, in light of the obvious lack of evidence, an action that ONLY benefits Israel (within the constraints of CURRENT affairs) and has cost hundreds of American lives. So stop throwing around the anti-Semetic card, it is less than worthless.

 

[Aegion]

Originally posted by: kage69
I didn't claim any conspiracy theory...Israel deliberately attacked the Liberty, sorry. The Liberty monitored and recorded the begining of the war, which made it anathema to Israel's desire to maintain the image of being ganged by it's Arab neighbors. It's hard to sell yourself as the victim when you're beating the other guys ass. The Johnson administration helped cover it up in exchange for Jewish-American support during the escalation of the Vietnam Conflict, the same lobby that spread lies of anti-semiticism about the Liberty crew and actively prevented them from publishing their own accounts of the incident.

You clearly are now, at least if you're going to narrow it down to one we can talk. What exactly did the Liberty see which was so secret? As pointed out earlier in the article I linked to ""On July 2, 2003, as a result of my lawsuit using the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Agency made two significant admissions. First, that there had been no radio intercepts made by the USS Liberty." If you're claiming the NSA is lying, you need to explain why and you need a new explanation since the old one doesn't work in this case.

As far as the rest of the explanation, its clear that Egypt took the first hostile act by closing the Straits of Tiran.

In 1957, at the UN, 17 maritime powers declared that Israel had a right to transit the Strait. Moreover, the blockade violated the Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone, which was adopted by the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea on April 27, 1958.

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf6.html#c

If Egypt was dumb enough to assume they could take such an action and get away with it, they were really stupid, and the Eyptian troop movements at the same time were definately consistant with preperations for invasion. I don't see what your point on the rest of the issue is. Israel has made no secret of the fact they defeated their Arab neighbors decisively during the six day war. Of course, Nasser did talk during the war about how he was going to drive the Israelis into the sea and actually got his Arab neighbors to join the war. Unless you have a wierd definition, just because one side turns out to be weaker than they thought once the war began, does not mean they were definately not the agressor. Just as a historical example France actually declared war on Prussia during the Franco-Prussian War, but they rather promptly and decisively got their asses handed to them by the Prussian and other German armies. As long as the Arabs believed they had the superior military, which they clearly did in numberical terms, and their airforce actually consisted of Soviet plane models that were than the Israelis, which incidentally has mostly French Jets at the time, so many military observers actually predicted that the Arabs would win the air war prior to the actual fight beginning. Basicly I fail to see what the Israelis were covering up in the scenario you mention.