THE GCHQ BUDE FILES: AN OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE INVESTIGATION
After I was forced to go dark to protect myself, the British state tried to intimidate me. Here's the proof.
**For the avoidance of doubt: I am not suicidal. I am young, in excellent physical and mental health, in full possession of my mental faculties and am looking forward to building a free, full life. Any sudden deterioration, unexplained harm to my person, my wellbeing or any unexplained interference with my communication must be treated with the highest suspicion.**
Hi everyone.
I’m back again for a second time today for another addition to the archive. Surprise.
This time, I’m sharing hard evidence of the suspicious calls I received after trying to secure legal support and tightening my digital security, including one traced directly to GCHQ Bude.
If you’re new here, I strongly suggest you go back and read my first, second, third and fourth installations.
I. Email Metadata Surveillance: The First Call
On Wednesday 9th April at at 19:59, I received this legally incoherent email from McAllister Olivarius, the law firm that claims to “take on some of the world’s most powerful, sophisticated and legally aggressive institutions, successfully”.
Just six minutes later, at 20:05, I received a call to my UK number from 0771038850.
Not a coincidence. I was 6,550 miles away from the UK, rarely receive calls to my UK number since arriving in Japan - yet somehow, a random UK number was now calling me immediately after legal correspondence.
The call was an automated voice message telling me to “message the number via WhatsApp”. I didn’t. Instead, I documented it immediately. Here’s the screenshot:
This incident wasn’t random. It was a message: We’re watching you.
II. The Call from GCHQ Bude
After receiving the first call, I took steps to protect myself. I removed my UK sim from my phone. I inserted it into a new device on Wednesday 23rd April.
Within an hour, I received a call - this time from 01288706758. A quick search revealed the area code: Bude, Cornwall. Of all the places in the UK, I received a call traced to Bude. The site of GCHQ Bude, one of Britain’s most important surveillance listening posts, operated jointly by GCHQ and the NSA under the UKUSA Agreement (Five Eyes).1
This was no accident. It wasn’t a Cornish ice cream parlour trying to contact me. This was a reaction to me going dark. Digital pressure. State intelligence escalation.
Under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, interception warrants must be:
Authorised by a Secretary of State
Approved by a Judicial Commissioners
Limited to national security, economic security, or preventing serious crime.
Harassing a civilian whistleblower, on foreign soil, for seeking legal advice, is none of those things.
This call, under GCHQ’s own legal framework, was unlawful. I know it. They know it. And now, you know it too.
III. The Call Routed through Silverado, California
On Sunday 20th April, I received another suspicious unknown call, this time routed through Silverado, California.*
Population? 932 people.
Major infrastructure? None.
It defies logic that a legitimate call would route through Silverado to reach me - unless it was spoofed, masked or designed to appear untraceable.
Coupled with GCHQ’s Bude signal, the email metadata surveillance and subsequent call, the Silverado call forms part of a broader, troubling pattern of global surveillance escalation.
IV. Reflections
So, let’s call this what it really is:
Surveillance of a civilian whistleblower
Intelligence-linked harassment
Abuse of communications data
Cross-border intimidation
Retaliation for seeking legal advice
Collusion between state and private actors
Government overreach
All of this, conducted under the proud banner of:
The Department for
Surveillance
Intimidation
and Targeting
DSIT.
Throughout all of this, I keep reminding myself: DSIT are the ones who have broken the law here -not me. No matter how much they try to make me feel like a criminal.
I know the truth. DSIT knows the truth. And now, the world is beginning to know the truth too.
See you tomorrow.
*Article updated on Tuesday 6th May for clarification. In a previous version, I stated I received a call routed through Silverado before I had inserted my UK sim into my new device. Upon review, I realise that timeline was inaccurate - the call in fact came through to my UK SIM on my original device as shown in the screenshot.
I would like to apologise for that confusion and take this moment to emphasise: I don’t have editors. I’m one person. I am simultaneously experiencing, processing, documenting and publishing this archive in real time.
I take accuracy seriously, and when I make a mistake, I correct it.
Thank you.
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https://publicintelligence.net/gchq-bude/