They have plotted deadly missions from secret bases in the badlands of Somalia. In Afghanistan, they have engaged in combat so intimate that they have emerged soaked in blood that was not their own. On clandestine raids in the dead of night, their weapons of choice have ranged from customized carbines to primeval tomahawks.

他们在索马里荒野的秘密基地里策划致命的任务。他们在阿富汗与敌人近身缠斗，身上浸透了别人的鲜血。在夜深人静开展秘密搜捕时，他们的首选武器里有特制的卡宾枪，也有原始的战斧。

Around the world, they have run spying stations disguised as commercial boats, posed as civilian employees of front companies and operated undercover at embassies as male-female pairs, tracking those the United States wants to kill or capture.

他们在世界各地设立着伪装成商业船只的间谍站，化身为幌子公司的平民雇员，假扮成一对对男女伴侣在使馆开展秘密行动，追踪美国希望击杀或抓捕的人。

Those operations are part of the hidden history of the Navy's SEAL Team 6, one of the nation's most mythologized, most secretive and least scrutinized military organizations. Once a small group reserved for specialized but rare missions, the unit best known for killing Osama bin Laden has been transformed by more than a decade of combat into a global manhunting machine.

这些行动是美国海军海豹突击队第6分队(SEAL Team 6)不为人知的历史的一部分。第6分队是美国最具神话色彩、最秘密、也最少受到监督的军事组织之一，最有名的战果是击杀了奥萨玛·本·拉登(Osama bin Laden)。它最初的规模不大，只执行特殊而罕见的任务，但在逾十年的战斗中，它已经脱胎换骨，转变成为一台全球追捕机器。

That role reflects America's new way of war, in which conflict is distinguished not by battlefield wins and losses, but by the relentless killing of suspected militants.

这样的角色体现了美国的作战新方式，冲突不再表现为战场上的输赢，而是对可疑武装分子毫不留情的击杀。

Almost everything about SEAL Team 6, a classified Special Operations unit, is shrouded in secrecy — the Pentagon does not even publicly acknowledge that name — though some of its exploits have emerged in largely admiring accounts in recent years. But an examination of Team 6's evolution, drawn from dozens of interviews with current and former team members, other military officials and reviews of government documents, reveals a far more complex, provocative tale.

第6分队是一个机密的特种作战部队，有关它的一切几乎都笼罩在秘密中——五角大楼甚至没有公开承认它的名字 ——尽管最近几年，有人讲述过它的一些功绩；而这些讲述在很大程度上带着一种仰慕之情。不过，在对几十名现役队员、前队员和其他军官的采访，并查阅政府文件之后归纳出的第6分队的演变过程，揭示了一个更为复杂、更具争议性的故事。

While fighting grinding wars of attrition in Afghanistan and Iraq, Team 6 performed missions elsewhere that blurred the traditional lines between soldier and spy. The team's sniper unit was remade to carry out clandestine intelligence operations, and the SEALs joined CIA operatives in an initiative called the Omega Program, which offered greater latitude in hunting adversaries.

除了在阿富汗和伊拉克的艰苦消耗战，第6分队还在其他地方开展任务，士兵和间谍之间的传统界线在这些任务中变得模糊。分队的狙击小组进行了重组，以开展秘密情报行动，海豹突击队在“欧米茄计划”(Omega Program)中与中情局特工携手合作；该计划为追捕敌人提供了更大的灵活性。

Team 6 has successfully carried out thousands of dangerous raids that military leaders credit with weakening militant networks, but its activities have also spurred recurring concerns about excessive killing and civilian deaths.

虽然第6分队已经成功地开展了数千次的袭击，并且被军方领导人认为起到了削弱武装分子网络的作用，但它的活动也触发了人们的一些常见担忧，如过度杀戮和平民伤亡。

When suspicions have been raised about misconduct, outside oversight has been limited. Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees SEAL Team 6 missions, conducted its own inquiries into more than a half-dozen episodes, but seldom referred them to Navy investigators. “JSOC investigates JSOC, and that's part of the problem,” said one former senior military officer experienced in special operations, who like many others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because Team 6's activities are classified.

当有人怀疑第6分队存在不当行为时，它遭受的外部监督相当有限。联合特种作战司令部（Joint Special Operations Command，简称JSOC）负责监督第6分队的任务开展，它对将近10起事件展开过内部调查，但是很少把它们交给海军调查部门处理。“JSOC调查JSOC的事情，这就是部分症结所在，”一名参加过特别行动的高级军官说。就像很多其他接受本文采访的人一样，此人也不愿意具名，因为第6分队的活动属于机密。

Even the military's civilian overseers do not regularly examine the unit's operations. “This is an area where Congress notoriously doesn't want to know too much,” said Harold Koh, the State Department's former top legal adviser, who provided guidance to the Obama administration on clandestine war.

就连军方的文职监督者也不会定期检查该分队的活动。“这方面国会不想知道太多，这是人尽皆知的事，” 前国务院高级法律顾问高洪柱(Harold Koh)说，他曾为奥巴马政府提供秘密战争方面的指导。

Waves of money have sluiced through SEAL Team 6 since 2001, allowing it to significantly expand its ranks — reaching roughly 300 assault troops, called operators, and 1,500 support personnel — to meet new demands. But some team members question whether the relentless pace of operations has eroded the unit's elite culture and worn down Team 6 on combat missions of little importance. The group was sent to Afghanistan to hunt al-Qaida leaders, but instead spent years conducting close-in battle against mid- to low-level Taliban and other enemy fighters. Team 6 members, one former operator said, served as “utility infielders with guns.”

自2001年以来，大批资金被注入第6分队，让它得以大幅扩张队伍——被称为“行动员”的突击队员达到约300人，外加1500名后方人员——以满足新的需求。但是，第6分队一些队员质疑，连轴转地采取行动，可能已经侵蚀了该分队的精英文化，用不太重要的作战任务拖垮了分队。他们被派往阿富汗追捕基地组织的头目，但却花了几年时间和中低层塔利班和其他敌对武装分子开展近距离战斗。一名前行动员说，第6分队的队员被人当成“带枪的万能内野手”来使唤。

The cost was high: More members of the unit have died over the past 14 years than in all its previous history. Repeated assaults, parachute jumps, rugged climbs and blasts from explosives have left many battered, physically and mentally.

这样做付出了很高的代价：过去14年里阵亡的队员人数，多于以前所有时候的总和。不断地攻击、跳伞、艰苦的攀爬、爆炸，令很多人身心俱损。

“War is not this pretty thing that the United States has come to believe it to be,” said Britt Slabinski, a retired senior enlisted member of Team 6 and veteran of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. “It's emotional, one human being killing another human being for extended periods of time. It's going to bring out the worst in you. It's also going to bring out the best in you.”

“战争不像美国想象的那么美好，”布里特·斯拉宾斯基(Britt Slabinski)说。“一个人长期从事杀人勾当，就会受到感情上的影响。它会让你露出最坏的一面，也会让你露出最好的一面。” 斯拉宾斯基是一名退役的第6分队资深士兵，在阿富汗和伊拉克参加过大量战斗。

Team 6 and its Army counterpart, Delta Force, have delivered intrepid performances that have drawn the nation's two most recent presidents to deploy them to an expanding list of far-off trouble spots. They include Syria and Iraq, now under threat from the Islamic State, and Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen, mired in continuing chaos.

第6分队在陆军的对应组织“三角洲部队”(Delta Force)表现勇猛，因此最近的两位美国总统把他们部署到了很多麻烦不断的遥远地区。其中包括叙利亚和伊拉克，现在这两个国家受到伊斯兰国(Islamic State)的威胁，还有阿富汗、索马里和也门等陷入了持续混乱的国家。

Like the CIA's campaign of drone strikes, Special Operations missions offer policymakers an alternative to costly wars of occupation. But the bulwark of secrecy around Team 6 makes it impossible to fully assess its record and the consequences of its actions, including civilian casualties or the deep resentment inside the countries where its members operate. The missions have become embedded in U.S. combat with little public discussion or debate.

就像中央情报局开展的无人机袭击一样，特种作战任务也为政策制定者提供了一个方式，来替代代价不菲的占领性战争。但鉴于第6分队的保密性质，对其记录和其行为的后果进行充分评估是不可能的——它造成的后果包括在开展行动的国家引起平民伤亡或者仇恨。融入到美军战斗中的这些特种作战任务，几乎没有做过公开讨论或辩论。

Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., a member of the SEALs during the Vietnam War, cautioned that Team 6 and other Special Operations forces had been overused. “They have become sort of a 1-800 number anytime somebody wants something done,” he said. But relying on them so much, he added, is inevitable whenever U.S. leaders are faced with “one of those situations where the choice you have is between a horrible choice and a bad choice, one of those cases where you have no option.”

前内布拉斯加州民主党参议员鲍勃·克里(Bob Kerrey)在越南战争期间为海豹突击队成员，他警告说，第6分队和其他特种作战部队已被过度使用。“他们已变得有点像1-800号码，随时有人想办什么事，就会找到他们，”他说，但是，每当美国领导人面临的情况是“你只有两个选择，一个可怕的，一个糟糕的”时，如此依赖他们也是必然的，因为“在那种情况下，你没有选择”。

While declining to comment specifically on SEAL Team 6, the U.S. Special Operations Command said that since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks its forces “have been involved in tens of thousands of missions and operations in multiple geographic theaters, and consistently uphold the highest standards required of the U.S. armed forces.”

美国特种作战司令部虽然拒绝专就第6分队置评，但表示自2001年9月11日以来，其部队“参与的袭击涉及到在多个地区的数以万计的任务和行动，并始终遵循美国武装部队要求的最高标准。”

The command said its operators are trained to operate in complex and fast-moving environments and it trusts them to conduct themselves appropriately. “All allegations of misconduct are taken seriously,” the statement said, adding: “Substantiated findings are dealt with by military or law enforcement authorities.”

司令部称，对行动员的训练针对的就是复杂而快速移动的行动环境，并相信他们能够采取合适的行动。“所有关于不当行为的指控，我们都进行了认真对待，”该声明说。“如果有一定的证据，就由军事或执法部门来处理。”

The unit's advocates express no doubts about the value of such invisible warriors. “If you want these forces to do things that occasionally bend the rules of international law,” said James G. Stavridis, a retired admiral and former supreme allied commander at NATO, referring to going into undeclared war zones, “you certainly don't want that out in public.” Team 6, he added, “should continue to operate in the shadows.”

第6分队的支持者对这种隐形战士的价值没有表示丝毫怀疑。“如果你想让这些部队做一些偶尔不太符合国际法的事，”前北约最高司令官、退役海军上将詹姆斯·G·斯塔夫里迪斯(James G. Stavridis)在谈到进入未宣战地区作战时说，“你当然不希望这样的事公开出来。”他说，第6分队“应该始终在暗中行动”。

But others warn of the seduction of an endless campaign of secret missions, far from public view. “If you're unacknowledged on the battlefield,” said William C. Banks, an expert on national security law at Syracuse University, “you're not accountable.”

但也有一些人警告说，像这样远离公众视野，无休止地开展秘密任务是有风险的。“如果你不承认在战场上，别人不知道你在那里，”雪城大学(Syracuse University)国家安全法专家威廉·C·班克斯(William C. Banks)说，“你就不会被问责。”

Most missions were not lethal. Several Team 6 members said they herded women and children together and knocked men out of the way, with a push or a gun muzzle, to search homes. They frequently took prisoners.

大多数的任务都不会造成人员死亡。第6分队的几个队员表示，他们会把妇女和儿童集中到一起，用推搡或枪管把男人弄到一边，然后挨家进行搜查。他们经常活捉敌人。

The Team 6 members often operate under the watchful eyes of their commanders — officers at overseas operations centers and at the Dam Neck Annex of the Oceana Naval Air Station, just south of Virginia Beach, Virginia, can routinely view live surveillance feeds of raids provided by drones high above. But they are also given wide latitude. While Special Operations troops functioned under the same rules of engagement as other military personnel in Afghanistan, Team 6 members routinely performed their missions at night, making life-or-death decisions in dark rooms with few witnesses and beyond the view of a camera.

第6分队的队员经常在上级指挥官的注视下采取行动——海外行动中心的军官，或者欧西安纳海军航空站(Oceana Naval Air Station)的丹奈克附属中心(Dam Neck Annex)的军官。后者位于弗吉尼亚州弗吉尼亚海滩的南部，那里的军官会定期查看无人机在高空传回的攻击现场监视视频。但是，他们也拥有很大的自由度。虽然特种作战部队采取行动遵循的规则与驻阿富汗的其他军事人员的相同，但第6分队的成员通常在晚间执行任务；在鲜有目击者的黑屋子里、在摄像机镜头之外，操纵着生死大权。

The rules boiled down to this, a former noncommissioned officer said: “If in your assessment you feel threatened, in a split second, then you're going to kill somebody.” He described how one SEAL sniper killed three unarmed people, including a small girl, in separate episodes in Afghanistan and told his superiors that he felt they had posed a threat. Legally, that was sufficient. “But that doesn't fly” in Team 6, the noncommissioned officer said. “You actually have to be threatened.” He added that the sniper was forced out of Team 6.

一名士官说，把规则归结成一句话就是：“如果你判断自己受到了威胁，那么马上你就要杀死某人。”他讲述海豹突击队一名狙击手在阿富汗的几次不相关的行动中打死了三名手无寸铁的人，其中一个是小女孩。此人告诉上司说，他觉得他们构成了威胁。从法律上讲，那就足够了。“但是，这在第6分队行不通，这个士官说。“你真的一定要受到威胁。”他还说，那名狙击手被迫离开了第6分队。

Beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan, members of Team 6's Black Squadron were scattered around the world on spying missions. Originally Team 6's sniper unit, Black Squadron was reconfigured after the Sept. 11 attacks to conduct “advance force operations,” military jargon for intelligence gathering and other clandestine activities in preparation for a Special Operations mission.

除了阿富汗和巴基斯坦之外，第6分队“黑色中队”(Black Squadron)的成员分散在世界各地执行间谍任务。“黑色中队”最初是第6分队的狙击单位，但在9·11恐怖袭击后重组，以开展“先遣部队行动”，这个军事术语是指开展情报搜集和其他秘密活动，为特种作战任务做准备。

Black Squadron has something the rest of SEAL Team 6 does not: female operatives. Women in the Navy are admitted to Black Squadron and sent overseas to gather intelligence, usually working in embassies with male counterparts. One former SEAL Team 6 officer said male and female members of Black Squadron would often work together in pairs. It is called “profile softening,” making the couple appear less suspicious to hostile intelligence services or militant groups.

第6分队其他部门没有女性行动员，但黑色中队有。在海军，黑色中队招募并派往海外收集情报的女性，通常会与男性成员合作，在使馆工作。一位前第6分队队员称，黑色中队的男性和女性成员经常成双结对地开展工作。这叫做“形象软化”，因为在敌对情报机构或武装组织眼中，一对伴侣的可疑性会低一些。

Black Squadron now has more than 100 members, its growth coinciding with the expansion of perceived threats around the world. It also reflects the shift among U.S. policymakers. Anxious about using shadow warriors in the years after the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” debacle in Mogadishu, Somalia, government officials today are willing to send units like SEAL Team 6 to conflicts, whether the United States chooses to acknowledge its role or not.

黑色中队目前有100多名队员，它的发展壮大与全球各地威胁增长的感觉相吻合。这也反映了美国政策制定者们的变化。1993年索马里摩加迪沙发生“黑鹰坠落”，之后数年中，政府官员对使用秘密部队感到焦虑不安，但如今他们愿意派遣第6分队这样的组织前往冲突地区，无论美国是否决定承认它的作用。

“When I was in, we were always chasing wars,” said Ryan Zinke, a former Team 6 officer and now a Republican congressman from Montana. “These guys found them.”

“我还在第6分队时，我们总是到处求战，”瑞安·津凯(Ryan Zinke)说，他曾是第6分队军官，现在是蒙大拿州的共和党众议员。“他们找到了战争。”