[drats]

Irrespective of the guilt or innocence of Assange or the Pirate Bay people there have been massive irregularities in Swedish government activities such that they can only be explained by corruption or incompetence and vindictiveness. While that should come as no surprise to anyone, it certainly damages Sweden's image heavily.

[GuiA]

Most likely intervention and not so subtle pressures from another government (but which one?)

[Nux]

That's a rhetorical question, of course. :-)

[rhizome]

The explanations you surmise are all subject to the law, and what we are seeing here is that there are strata of society that are simply above the law. That we get a peek into the levers of power like this is merely a side-effect, not evidence that can be acted upon.

[matthewowen]

What does this have to do with Assange? Assange is being extradited because he's accused of raping something. There's been nothing irregular - just Assange et al inventing implausible fictional motives behind the extradition request.

[matthewowen]

Why am I being downvoted? If you think the extradition of Assange to Sweden is all a plot to get him to the USA, you need to read a lot more about the case.

Extraditing him to Sweden makes it harder for him to be extradited to the USA - in effect, you then have to go through extradition procedures in both the UK and Sweden.

This is an interesting, useful, and relevant article (and published by a left of centre source at that): http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2012/08/....