That really does make a big difference to me. Capturing an escaping fugitive really is their domain, assuming they operated with permission of the governments over which they flew.

The DOJ cannot in fact lawfully fly into other countries to capture escaping fugitives! If Snowden is in Denmark, they need the cooperation of the government of Denmark to take custody of him.

Since Danish agents were present when the plane touched down in Copenhagen, couldn't they just detain him awaiting extradition?

It's very clear Denmark was onboard given the article.

Yes, they can definitely do that.

tptacek, you have a J.D, correct? I would love to chat about your experiences in law/tech, if we could exchange info.

Eek, lord no. People on HN to talk to about that: 'rayiner, 'tzs, 'DannyBee, 'pdabbadabba, 'grellas, 'dctoedt.

('tzs has a JD and isn't a lawyer, which I think is interesting. Also, he wrote my all-time favorite HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6228350)

Oh, that's interesting. Very impressive. My apologies for the misunderstanding :) I've seen far far worse legal understanding reviewing the writing of first and second year associates as a paralegal, in a previous job.

I do monitor the few comments of a few (especially rayiner and grellas.) I'm quickly learning that when they make legal arguments it's best to shut up and let them educate me.

Also, I've interestingly met a few people with JDs who go into finance, management, engineers as patent attorneys, and even one who went into high-risk bail bonds.

Do we know that yet?

The article is based on this admission from the Danish minister of Justice (in Danish): http://www.ft.dk/samling/20151/almdel/reu/bilag/163/1596061....

It just mentions the "American government".

Freedom of information requests have shown that FBI (Department of Justice) asked several countries to be notified should Snowden pass through their airports.

Also, it is believed that the plane is a privately owned gulfstream with ID N977GA.