First, I agree that they are not "spies". It's a really bad choice of words.
Second, even with the MSM spin and misunderstanding, the raw facts show this Gunney having contraband weapons and body armor in locations intended to obscure his possession of them.
Third... well let's just say that the gravity of the problem has been within my AOR.
This is the kicker; had he not tried to enrich himself with booty then his claim of righteousness could be more believable. Unless this guy and his teammates were planning on starting a revolution and they were all in concert with the weapons and equipment thefts, then it's likely he used the espionage to cover his true nature -- he was a thief. What would the sentence have been without his expose, or if he had not hidden (supposition based by the MSM, and you know how inclusive they are!) other classified materiels in his bunkers?
Then you intuitively understand how many persons of ill repute have been placed into positions to classify previously unclassified material, seize control of operational information, and deny those authorized previously from access, including those who generated the information had had been working with it for decades and continue to work with it as required in their duties. You should also well understand that the percentage of personnel in the chain of command who have been advanced by outside brotherhood associations outnumber those whom have been advanced by simple competition in above the board selection processed. Added to the mix is a lack of recourse at one, two, and three tiers above most pay grades, as well as alternative routes such as IGs, NCIS, and other policing mechanisms.
In 90% to 98% of daily work, business appears as usual, until the decisions requiring wherewithal and actual competence are required, then their weaknesses are not only apparent but obvious to all who are honest and honorable. However those who have been so escalated in authority have gotten away with so much corruption for so long that they return to their conspiratorial brethren, reassuring one another in their continuing lust for more control and authority.
IMHO, the gravity of the problem within your AOR far exceeds that reported in the article and the issues which are larger, by several orders of magnitude, have been manifest since Clinton first assumed the Presidency. What we are witnessing today is merely the degeneracy of a previously well established system by that unchecked corruption.
The response of penalizing the infraction assumes the system works and is workable. 20 years ago I would concur.
When those who conspire in the occult become a majority, their conspiracies are no longer so hidden.
The issues of the article would have been investigated by CounterIntel several decades ago. Today, there are more risks of international contractors placed in positions of operational security than the few remaining intel positions could even respond to operational requests, let alone investigate potential malfeasance.
IMHO, our main strategy in the war on terror as advanced by brotherhoods, has been to allow all enemies of the Constitution to become the operators of our government, so long as they remain obedient to the pecking order of the brotherhood in question or which brotherhood happens to be the flavor of the month.
IMHO, it is easier to grasp the complexity of the problem by looking at the dual of the problem. The real issue isn't how many co-conspirators the GySgt may have known, it's how many in the chain of command outside of the GySgt and his group are NOT corrupt. That might actually be a smaller number. This reflects much more about the true nature of the problem.