[cabalamat]

> To show solidarity with the US (presumably the NSA and GCHQ are as thick as thieves)

Yes, and it is also consistent with the proposition that the UK's decision to extradite Assange was made at the political level in order to suck up to the USA.

[Svip]

Sweden is not the same as the UK. Sweden's extradition laws are bit less vague than the British ones. The risk of the US asking Sweden to extradite Assange is pretty much nil at this point. At least, if the US has any sense of PR and not trying to adopt the German diplomacy of the First World War.