This is more than a review of a superb made-for-TV-series movie, based on true events of enormous significance. NBC began showing but found it necessary to cancel. They cancelled it for a 'reality show' no less; you can't make this stuff up. We are participants in the Great Game up to our elbows, whether we choose to be or not, and most have no clue.

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NETFLIX is streaming the movie entitled The Assets, 2014, produced as a TV Mini-Series, and is a must-see, guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. I, myself, was unable to pause for long while watching the series, playing all nine episodes virtually back to back, which I soon will re-play.

The work is brilliant, centered on true events by CIA insiders. The movie is based on the book Circle of Treason, written by resolute CIA officers Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille, who were instrumental in breaking the case. After years of painstaking work, they exposed a man they both knew (Aldrich Ames) as the traitor. The long search included roadblocks put in the way by the '7^th Floor' command. Sandra Grimes confronted the D/CIA face to face over this obstruction and prevailed! British actresses Jodie Whitakker and Harriet Walter are simply superb actresses, even though they play the parts of Americans.

ABC began showing the series, but it was cancelled after only a few (only two, I think) episodes, for a 'reality show' no less. The final episode (9) is revealing and devastating in its impact; it was never shown on television. Episode Nine combines the movie story and actors with real players and real events. It is damning to those who want to conceal the truth. The appearance of Marina Polyakov, the General's real-life granddaughter, provides a personal impact that will bring tears to your eyes (well, it did to mine anyhow).

To my knowledge, you will only find The Assets, 2014, on NETFLIX, or on Amazon instant-video. (When you call NETFLIX, remember to mention who sent you.)

Soviet Major General Dmitry Polyakov, born July 6, 1921, in the Luhansk Oblast in easternmost Ukraine, was a Soviet war hero and later high-level GRU (Soviet military intelligence) officer stole vital secrets from the highest level of Soviet command and passed them on to our CIA, which included details on Soviet capabilities and plans. Code named GT Top Hat, General Polyakov became an asset to the United States, but a traitor to the Soviet Union. ('GT' refers to CIA and FBI Soviet- and East Europe-division sensitive cases.) Note: Dmitry Polyakov would have been only 24 years of age at the end of WWII. He witnessed the hope he had of a greater nation for his people crushed in the years that followed.

We learn that General Polyakov did not do so for personal gain -- mostly he just enjoyed fishing for trout -- but because in so doing he believed he may provide information that could prevent a nuclear holocaust of such utter devastation as to render survivors' lives meaningless. He passed on detailed plans of Soviet missile technology as well as information on Soviet war plans.

General Polyakov likely would never have been found out, except that CIA officer Aldrich Ames walked into the Soviet Embassy and volunteered to become a Soviet asset, thereby becoming a traitor to his country, the United States. Aldrich Ames betrayed his country for money and to cater to his narcissistic needs.

As Ames' career advanced, he met and married a Columbian woman, Rosario, who it turned out had a greater taste for the good life than even he.

Ames' Soviet Embassy contact continued to demand more information for the dollar. Eventually Ames managed to steal a list of every Russian asset (double agent) the CIA had in the Soviet Union. For this information he demanded from his embassy contact $1,000.000. Cash.

To the Soviets this was the grand prize! It meant they could eliminate every double agent in Moscow. (At least ten were executed, including GT Top Hat, who was brutally murdered.) It turned out that the information Soviet KGB received for their million-dollar payout amounted to a bargain-basement transaction for them.

Readers on this site are aware that what really goes on is far different from what we are asked to believe. The value of this series-film is that it provides a glimpse of what we likely weren't meant to see as in "Don't look here; look over there, I tell you. Look how bright and shiny everything is. 3-D Television is on the horizon, which will offer greater interactive abilities as well...."

Following is an interview excerpt with Sandy Grimes following the publication of Circle of Treason: http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-21/grimes1.html

An interview with Sandy Grimes:

"INTERVIEWER: How important was Dmitri Polyakov, what sort of spread of information was he giving you?

"Sandy Grimes: In order to understand how important Polyakov was, and of course initially I certainly didn't understand it, I didn't know anything about spying, I didn't know anything about spies, so in some respects he was my first teacher, but you have to understand the Soviet system, to understand the breadth of information he was giving us. First, he was a Soviet military officer and as such he had access to reporting on tanks, missiles, Soviet military philosophy, the whole spectrum. He was also an intelligence officer, so that he could provide us everything on the GRU's agents, their modus operandae, where they were running operations, why they were up running operations, identify all their officers, and in some respects, most important in terms of the value of what he reported, or at least as important as the military information, was because he was a member of the GRU, but one of the top Soviet organizations, GRU, KGB and FAR Party. He had access to Soviet foreign policy as well and economic policy, and certainly as he rose up within his service and rose in rank from Lieutenant Colonel to General that just expanded."

The elimination of our assets by betrayal brings to mind CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson. She was exposed as a CIA officer for political reasons by those who needed to conceal their ploy for the invasion of Iraq. This betrayal in turn exposed the assets she had cultivated, who were no doubt subsequently executed.

That Plame/Wilson incidents didn't rate any detailed investigation by our crack MSM, to say nothing about an expose that could have put a monkey wrench into the plan our war criminals instituted with the infamous 'Shock and Awe' news event that followed. Officer Plame's exposure may have necessitated a bit of mischievousness, perhaps even a certain amount of malfeasance. No harm, no foul.

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, become whistleblower Edward Snowden, gave information to the public, not to a foreign government; thus he was not an asset to Russians (or anyone else), but only a perceived liability to the United States.

Up to this point my favorite books were John le Carre's Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy (John le Carre was a British spy) and Smiley's People. These books were fiction, based on his experiences, although real-enough fiction. Astonishingly, the intended Mini-Series, The Assets, 2014, is a dramatization of from what le Carre would call 'the theater of the real'.

Liberties are taken because of the dramatization necessary in the making of a movie, but the overall impact of the events that played out is real. Wikipedia adds information that offers some minor contractions. This page suggests another major reason for the General's decision to betray his country: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Polyakov

John le Carre from a BBC news interview in 2010 speaking of how the 'brutish yet direct application of pure wealth has changed everything', certainly as timely today as ever:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/today/hi/today/newsid_8977000/8977025.stm

"Something much healthier has happened in our attitude towards the secret world. We no longer buy into the mystique the way we did, because of its successive failures. Iraq is a glaring example, but there have been many others.

"As for the old foe, le Carre reacts with insouciance to the recent revelation of a Russian 'sleeper' network in the United States.

"'I would believe almost anything of the state of Russian intelligence at the moment, which is on the one hand closely involved with Russian crime, on the other hand it is the crucible of the new Russian imperialism. It is a complete mix.

"'It contains people who want Stalin back. It contains people who just want to make a buck. It is a vast, amorphous organisation.

"'Somewhere in that organisation were a bunch of neanderthal intelligence officers who really believed we should do today what we did in the past.

"'This really was a case of fighting the last war.'

"And le Carre reveals that he once asked a top Russian what Vladimir Putin had been like in the KGB. 'He was not very good,' came the reply. 'We tried to train him for illegal work, after a few weeks it was decided he was completely incompetent for this.'

"The ending of the Cold War, the author explains, has also seen the demise of the great national struggles which formed the bedrock of his earlier works.

"Power and ideology have been replaced by the brutish yet direct application of pure wealth.

"For the really high rollers, national borders, and national legislation, are absolutely irrelevant.

"But, for all these changes, John le Carre warns that the lessons of the past decades remain as potent as ever.

"'The victims always remember, the winners forget.'"

In light of current events, one wonders if current CIA assets have reported enough weaknesses in the Russian position for 'our side' to conclude they can put Putin in 'check', as the chess game plays out.

On the other hand, is it possible an undiscovered Russian mole in our CIA is providing misleading information to the political, bureaucrat leaders in charge of decision making?

Is the United States government so fearful of a popular revolt, which may follow a possible financial calamity that they feel the need to offer even more TV-war diversions that appeal to the 'patriotic real Americans'?

It's likely the current play may be a government-funding ruse, yet another diversion to continue the war on its own population. They seem determined to continue with a renew vengeance with the failed Austerity class war, a program designed to legally eliminate the poor. It seems apparent that Members of Congress have worked themselves into a worrisome sweat, as they follow the lead of their billionaire masters, now proposing extreme measures to eliminate the 'traitors' they see everywhere.

I recall reading the words of a billionaire who confessed he worried if his net worth dropped below $1,000,000,000. As of now, his class is safely in control, but an overabundance of America's misfits could pose a significant problem for them as time goes by.

The rich are not an asset to us, but we are a liability to them.

Authors Bio:
Teacher; Corporate lackey.
I believe the assassinations of JFK and RFK were a coup d'état.