John Howard and Alexander Downer sparked Australia's biggest biological terror scare last year when they exaggerated test results to claim white powder sent to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra — later shown to be flour — was a "biological agent".
Documents from ACT Pathology and the Australian Federal Police, obtained under freedom of information laws, show the microbiologist who examined the powder on June 1 last year and the AFP never called it a "biological agent" and described it as a commonly occurring bacteria; gram-positive bacilli.
On June 1 last year, Mr Howard said: "It's not an innocent white powder, it's some kind of biological agent."
The documents reveal that some days after testing began, the powder was shown to be flour, something Howard failed to mention at the time.
"I think what it proves is that John Howard and a number of his senior ministers are far more interested in trying to get some political spin for their own benefit instead of protecting Australia's national security interests," he said.
"I mean to claim that a white powder was anthrax, which is what the Attorney-General did in radio interviews at the time, when the Federal Police and other agencies had directly said it's not anthrax, it's not a biological agent."
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