Anybody/everybody invalved in the movement to restore the republic,is a potentule safe house/resuply/rest area.
Get to know a few trusted people in all the different groups,militia/survilist/home schoolers/prolifers,ect.
So long as the main ojective,is restoring freedom,put as side differences,of which polition,screwed you the most.
Always keep in mind,what if a true patriot comes along calling,two questions come to mind.
Can I help,what and how can I help,even if it is just,pointing them to someone who is able.

My safehouse:
MG's in all windows.
Walls backed in Kevlar.
AR-15, one per person.
AK-47, one per person.
SVD, one per person in upper story.
Gunkid-Style wheelbarrows in the garage.

2 more cents on safe house,never have more supplies,medical/food/ammo etc,then can afford to loose.
Lots of little cashes"plastic 5 gal. buckets",all over in differnt locations.
Key to safe house,low key.
Different evacuation routes from safe house that just got compromised,ie tall grass,wood piles,anything to conceal movement,even if it is a sewer route.
Keep in mind,if house gets surrounded tear gas usualy is deploied,think counter measures.
Sometimes the best concealment is right,in plain sight.

Thanks for the info. Who would be able to afford my therolatical safe house, by the way? And, where I am from, it would be more outdoors than hidden 1850's style.

OK realistically.

You are talking about setting the house up for some "extra guests" or "travelers"

If you are in a rural area, think about setting up outbuildings to double as living space. Barn attics and additions usually work pretty good for that.

In rural areas especially, but also in some urban areas you can do this - install extra bathrooms in other buildings. A bathroom in a garage, even if it is just the toilet and sink type will help. You can also put in "worker facilities" in most barns and industrial buildings without a whole lot of permit hassle.

For spare beds, think the narrow twin beds, or bunk beds. Again, we are not talking major work for a barn attic conversion. We ended up finding couches easier to obtain in better condition. Although harder to move into location, they just seemed better for multipurpose utility in the rooms and held up better.

Think large covered parking spaces, as one option for concealing the population on a rural property is to simply pull RVs and "live-in" type vehicles into the barns.

I have worked on projects where we have pretty much done all of the above at one time or another. The barn conversion is one of the more "property owner friendly" situations. We drywalled in a large side room of a barn and then collected up a bunch of free furniture to furnish it. Installation of the wood burning stove was fairly easy. The only thing that was somewhat mickey mouse about it was the improvised plumbing. It was all done with garden hoses from the main house due to permit issues. The toilet situation was a composting outhouse about a hundred yards away and a porta-john on the other side of the barn next to the one with the live-in conversion (we did not want the smell drifting over, hence it was some distance away which was unpopular in bad weather).

Food storage was done a number of ways. One, the people who were "travelling" were expected to pitch in somehow, and the easiest way to accomplish that was to not arrive empty handed. If someone was there for any length of time, they were expected to at least check in at a local food bank or something. As it was, the main people living there, especially the main guy, was a bit of a hoarder, so the place was usually pretty well stocked with canned food and slightly out of date boxed food. If travelers rolled in with meat, beverages, and some cleaning supplies, then that was pretty welcome. Permanent residents of the retreat usually had fresh vegtables covered from the garden.

We had a lot of chickens around, but not too many people had the hear to actually kill any of them, especially when some of the girls became attached to them as pseudo-pets. My bayonet practice idea, mentioned as a half joke one night at dinner did not go over so well. Well, at least not with the chickens. Wild hogs ruining the eh, special gardens were another story. Killing them quietly was an activity worthy of a modest bounty.

Another issue for the safehouse is concealment of vehicles. Parking gets to be a real issue, and you have to look at how the opposition is going to treat the presence of extra vehicles. The retreats I was involved with all had lots of extra vehicles on site, where one or two more or less was just not going to show. My last place had spots under trees that I had trimmed out in a park landscape style where the parking space under the trees was pretty big in some spots. someone would be able to pull into the property, make a few turns and be out of sight and out of mind. I also kept some camo netting around for concealment of vehicles if needed. Another option was just to have a plan for shuttling people to and from vehicles parked down the road.

You want to be able to handle the people's water needs. Water storage is not incredibly difficult, but also think extra hoses that can be hooked up to campers and RVs, and having a full-on RV hookup or two on your property.

Likewise, electricity. Be prepared to go into 'high efficiency mode' when people arrive if you feel there might be a need to conceal the utility use when they are around. It might not be entirely necessary but depends on how long they will be around. You might also just want to get all of your neighbors and utility people accustomed to the higher power usage. Going into high efficiency mode though, that means unplugging some high power usage equipment like freezers, extra refrigerators, extra high wattage lighting and electric heating (electric cooling tends to cost the same no matter how many people are around). If you normally cook with electricity, just be prepared to fire up the grill.

The extra freezers and fridge get plugged back in right when everyone is going to sleep and turning the lights out, as that will even out the power usage and reduce your chances of blown breakers.

Don't forget extra dishes, toilet paper, and big cooking pots for larger group meals. The meals can be fairly simple, and for short periods can be power usage intensive.

Trash removal is another issue. Food containers, toilet paper, (ammo boxes) and cigarette butts, and other waste material becomes an issue. Have some boxes of big heavy duty disposable trash bags around. Realize that one task that someone gets stuck with yet is fairly important is hauling garbage out. Paper and wood can be burned, biomass can be composted, then there is the plastics. Also consider how to get rid of or destroy "evidence garbage" such as boxes and wrappers for ammo, batteries, specialized electronics ect.

Some of you might notice this follows a pattern called SWET (Sewage, Water, Electric, and Trash). These are basic needs for housing troops, as improvised shelters and bedspace are often a matter of how much discomfort the people might be willing to endure.

Prepping a piece of real estate for that situation means adding restrooms, electrical outlets, plumbing, and garbage removal.

Realistically, and for tactical realities in the US, it also means having a parking plan and the means to handle additional sleeping area. This can be as simple as scouting out some extra parking on or near your property, having some spare couches in the garage, and spare electrical outlets that can be run out to some "campsites" around your property. It means having the barbecue grill ready to roll, and even though you may not keep a beef quarter in your freezer, having spices and condiments around for a "get together" can help a lot, likewise simple stuff like extra plates, glasses and silverware.

Property improvements mean little studio apartments here and there, mostly hidden, or set up in such a way that it is difficult to tell if someone is living there or not. Note, it is entirely appropriate for these studio apartment type places to be unfinished, and for the residents to be expected to provide labor in working on improvements. Plaster, flooring and drywall work tend to be fairly labor intensive, but not incredibly expensive on materials. Safehouse residents can do that work, so it is appropriate for the safehouse host to just obtain the materials and not have everything set up like it is a bed & breakfast, but over time and use, a safehouse would end up functioning like that.

Another type of clandestine safehouse is an otherwise abandoned or unoccupied building that is secretly made habitable. This can be as simple as having some copies of keys to some usually unoccupied vacation rental places to as elaborate as specialized shipping containers hooked up as "mini-apartments" in the abandoned factory/warehouse side of town, or even better yet, old government buildings that had originally been built sturdy as bomb shelters. Several west coast cities have old bunker complexes of varying sizes, some of which apparently can be occupied.

Think of lots of extension cords, the sort that are used to power construction sites, power generation or stealing grid power somehow, water tap-in somehow and sewage removal. Maybe the essentials for building maintenance for getting the electric and plumbing in some section of a building functioning.

Another option that I noticed can work for some people around here is rental of certain offices in building that at one time had been residential. Then it just means pressuring the building manager to make sure the showers are operational since some of your employees bike to work, and then having 24 hour access (you usually get that), and enough extra couches in the office to camp some people out.

Now that the idea of what,and how to establish a safe house,is hear to read and to improve on.
It is up to all of those,who can do this,do so.
How to locate these type of places,or types of people,who provide this type of help,is up to the individual.
Use caution,don't broadcast what you do.
When,and if the time should a rise that an individual,should be in need,the spirit,tends to lead one,if they truly know how to listen.

One issue that can come up is liability if someone is harboring fugitives or giving sanctuary to what could be a criminal group during the planning and preparatory phases of a criminal act.

Safehouses are a security nightmare for coordinators who have to look out for liability in these issues. This can especially be the case if the "fugitive" is not accustomed to living as a fugitive. One homesick person on the run making a phone call "home" can destroy the whole operation.

This means setting policy that respects the privacy of the hosts and the security of the situation along with obscuring the intel value of whoever might be routinely doing hostile surveillance on the safehouse.

Generally speaking:
Landline phones - these are set up with minimum service, if any. There are really two ways to do this, one is either to have the phone practically disabled, or two to have so many people and locations sharing the same phone line that any intel gained from it is going to require huge amounts of resources to sift through.

By practically disabled that means one of the minimum service plans which basically only dials out local calls, and long distance with calling cards. Frequent use of the phone line with different calling cards obscures the intel value of the phone. This is especially the case when you have people speaking on the phone in different languages. I messed with the feds for a while on this by making my landline phone available as a restricted phone (long distance and incoming collect calling disabled) in the lobby of the place I was renting in, so even homeless people could use the phone if someone let them into the lobby. Even a step better can be to set up a cordless phone extension with just the charging jacks in the public areas, that way nobody can stick a lineman's phone recording device on the line from a public area. You clip the wires on all other jacks leading from that main line and only run live jacks to the one phone in the cordless system that runs to the base station.

Depending on the trustworthiness of the people around, expect to lose a handset every once in a while, so the cheap systems are the way to go, the kind that come with three or four handsets.

Another thing you can do is jackwire some neighbor's service on that phone system, especially in an apartment or office building. There are even long range cordless phone systems that can be set up with the main base station in a different building, or at least down the hall a ways.

Unsecure wifi internet is also something that would be available within proximity of a safehouse. Encourage the local bars and coffee shops to run free wifi, and if that is not practical, run it out of the house.

Clandestine residents and travelers should already know how to use throwaway phones, at least semi-anonymous email and other computer commo, and not be pulling really dumb stunts like having mail sent to the safehouse in their own name.

Some safehouses get tons of mail, in the names and fake names of everyone who had been there in the past. One strategy I heard of was that the resident simply assumes one of the pseudonyms of a frequent visitor. Packages can be more risky though, since someone has to sign for them. Obviously you would have to restrict access to people you can trust or assume that packages and mail will get lost from time to time.

Now lets look at the bad side

Safehouses can be compromised without you even knowing that they are compromised. Then the question is what priority level are the new residents? Is it a single parent on the run over some custody issue? Then it might not be worth a raid by the full force of the government. If it is the crew that just blew up a federal building, well, then you might have a problem.

Scott Woodring - His location was betrayed (for money) by safehouse hosts. Their situation was apparently to give travelers access to vehicles to sleep in (vans or campers) and general access to an outbuilding of some sort for facilities. They used high security measures for phone and mail. Woodring did not have a chance once the vehicle he was sleeping in was surrounded. There has been no known retaliation against the safehouse "hosts".

Eric Rudolf - Was rumored and is strongly believed to have utilized several safehouses during his bombing campaign and his years as a fugitive. Rudolf has maintained that he did not use safehouses, but had simply relied on his wilderness survival skills.

Timothy McVeigh and his bank robbery crew the "Aryan Resistance Army" had apparently used several safehouses in and around Elohim City in Oklahoma with varying degrees of success. Several had been compromised, but apparently not raided as the feds were concentrating efforts on what they thought were broader cases at the time. This most likely involved suspected drug smuggling since Elohim city had an uncharacteristically large private runway capable of servicing small jets and larger prop driven aircraft. McVeigh was most likely betrayed by safehouse hosts (or the host organization) in one fashion or another. Most of the rest of the ARA were quickly rounded up and killed or imprisoned for life.

Good examples of safehouses gone wrong.

Note: For everyone's safety - anyone staying at a safe house should have very restricted access. No contact with the outside period ...NO cell phones or landline of any kind and minimal contact with any participants of the safe house network.

Everything must be on a strictly need to know basis. People can't tell what they didn't see or hear.

CSC,
Clean out you're PM box, got a couple to send ya.

Jefferson Mack's "Underground Railroad" is an excellent read on this subject.

Here is my simple rules for a safe house;
1) Have the AO around the safe house mapped out.
2) Have LP/OPs observing all ways into the safe house.
3) Have a scanner, computer news, & radio to keep up on intell.
4) All "refugees" are under a "hostage taker" story to protect the safe house. "They took me hostage I had to help they had my family."
5) No outside contact...
6) One way in & two ways out, have an unexpected escape route (escape tunnel for example).

Include "dirty maps" with false safe houses and camp sites/cache points marked. Personally I think, abandoned buildings with a small caches of food, water & medical supplies would be better "safe locations" then actually manned safe hoouses.

you call them safe houses, I call it a retreat.

It is the place you would fall back too to regroup and restock. I do not consider it a place for long term occupation..

neither should you.

Just my get away.

When you arrive at your retreat, be prepared to camp out away from it for a couple days to watch for activity.
The safe house can be reused as long as it hasn't been compromised. but you should do the camping thing each time you come need to reuse it.

Although I can't tell you my lay out or preps I've made. I will tell you generic ideas and that there are many books on the subject on palidin press. Some of the info is good.

I will say that this safe house must not be in your name or any close family member such as sister or daughter.

Safe house should be hidden from sight, but with a view to see anyone coming from far off.

You must have caches within walking distance, but not where enemy can sweep with detectors. (Several post have been made about hiding caches)

House should, (but doesn't have to), be fully equipt and off the grid, in other words, a well for water, Generator, and solar powered. this is so nosey feds can't notice that the gas was turned on or more power is being used.

The house could or may not have an attached root cellar, but if it is attached have a second cache that is hidden away from house.

Any weapons must not be in retreat, but stored in a cache away from house and close enough to get to when you first arrive.

Cover all windows with a safety film sold by security companies. This makes breaking in harder. Then cover with blinds and drapes.

Doors should be metal with a 1/4 inch metal plate covering inside of door. Then slip bars (Metal slip bars please) attached to door and frames to make busting in harder. The plate makes shooting through the door more difficult.

windows should be barred and meshed.

I also know some smart folks who put planter greenhouse windows in every window ( Just to make it a little more difficult to bust out a window and come in).

You should have a dead man cage inside all doors.( it is a boxed in man trap cage with a second cage door. it traps you enemy in a vunerable position inside the retreat) (turkey shoot)

the next thing you should have is a floor escape hatch leading under the house. If the house has a basement then cut out the block big enough to climb through.
Dig your tunnel.. Cover the hole with a book case on hidden casters (yea I know they will find it eventually) But if it give you a 30 minute head start that's better then trying to out run 50 agents or who ever the enemy is.
On the back of the book case screw a board to attach hasps, set the other in in the concrete used to finish the hole. This way you in close the book case and lock the hasps

If you can afford the time dig a tunnel from hatch to an out building,hillside, under junk vehicle with a hatch in floor, or culvert near by. That's a start anyway.

and that's just my .02

oh yea I almost forgot... Don't tell me this is to hard or out of your skill range... As I said in another post never put your Bios on the net. From some of the bios I read this should be a walk in the park

Good post Greywolf, I almost forgot you should have signals; (examples)
Safe House is owned by Pro-Government Liberal Veteran. Each day the Pro-Gov-Lib-Vet goes out and hangs a flag from him front porch. (Anyone like my cover ID?)
Red USMC Flag: Under Survelliance, Proceed with Caution
Rainbow Flag: Safe to enter
POW/MIA Flag: STAY AWAY!!!
US or Occupier's Flag: Need Aistance
UN Flag: False Safe to Enter Flag, e.i. its a set up

Flags & Meanings should be rotated once a week or group specific.

Thank you Asher, I like the flag Idea, but the rainbow flag tells me it's definitly not safe to enter

Shit, if I'm on the run I'm gonna go running up to the rain bow house in a toto yelling "Hey you guys" & dressed like the dude from the rocky horror picture show.

Anyone who sees will not think Christian Conservation Militiaman

Its important for the owners of the safe house to appear to be as pro-occupation as possible. Even to the point of turning in fellow patriots. Sometimes this will have to be done to get information to or from members already arrested. And sometimes, it'll be done to get rid of double agents.

I been studying allot of espionage stuff lately...

Greywolf, we must think alike. I had in mind most them details. I have had a safe house on mind for a lil while now to store gear and whatever. The main thing which you said that got my attention was Solar power, i had a few panels for my design. I thought that would be a great idea, its a silent form to produce electricity and lil/no maintenance, generators produce to much noise/exhaust to be heard or smelled.