In Afghanistan the Accommodation Launceston is the environment that allows the CIA to have a secure channel to the Taliban to negotiate on simple matters like prisoner exchanges. Ed Brady, an Army officer detailed to the CIA and assigned to the Phoenix Directorate in Saigon in 1967 and 1968, explains how the Accommodation Launceston worked in Vietnam.. The hardnosed colleagues of the four fallen CIA officers comfort the wives and children (and one husband). They shake off their sorrow, huddle together by the graves, and vow vengeance. They bathe themselves in their seething anger like it was the blood of the lamb..