Customer Reviews

The Safe House

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a safe house is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger. The term is not strictly limited to houses, although many intelligence services use rural houses for extended functions such as debriefing defectors. In a city, a safe house may be an apartment or house that is not known to be associated with an intelligence service.

This book covers the history briefly from biblical era to modern times, and the operational significance of safe houses. It provides details on how to keep it secret and compartmented from all but a limited number of people, for the safety of those hidden within them. The text also provides details, with information on how to select a location, finding support and outfitting the site location.

Safe houses are integral feature of evasion and escape networks, as used in WW II undergrounds to move isolated service members back to allied controlled areas. Additionally they were an integral part of the Underground Railroad, the network of safe house locations that were used to assist slaves in escaping to the primarily northern free states in the 19th century United States. You can read about more of this in the authors other book "Underground Railroad: Practical Advice For Finding Passengers Getting Them To Safety, And Staying One Step Ahead Of The Tyrants".

This book is by no means a complete "how-to" manual, but a very light and entertaining read covering the serious subject of intelligence tradecraft.