User:Geo Swan/working/Al-Qaeda safe house

This is not a Wikipedia article: It is an individual user's rough notes page, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable.

This page "supports the building of an encyclopedia." I consulted it today. Geo Swan (talk) 12:56, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Definitions

The US documents prepared for the cases of the Guantanamo detainees frequently justify their detention because they stayed at guesthouses or safehouses. They refer to them using these two terms interchangably -- although they are different.

Guest house is a term from the hospitality industry. In areas too poor, too primitive, or too infrequently visited to justify the building of hotels locals are known to set aside local houses for for the use of travelers. Tourist guides used to recommend travelers who wanted to rough it to consider staying in Afghan guest houses. A guest house is not that different from a "bed and breakfast".

Safe house is a term from the world of espionage, or organized crime. It is an ordinary looking house, set aside for the discrete use of traveling operatives, that is hopefully, not known to one's enemy.

When American intelligence analysts refer to Taliban or al Qaida safe houses, in Afghanistan, prior to the American invasion, they are clearly using the term incorrectly.