US denies 'wild' Assange claims of witch-hunt

[tama]

72. Well

rest aside the "he ran" slur, if we are to believe that what struggle4progress publishes on DU represents THE Swedish opinion, they are now close to if not at lynch mentality against Assange - not least because the whole thing has made Sweden look bad in many ways and question its international fame as the bestest country in world in all regards. The case has turned into matter of national pride, which does not spell good for justice. That kind of public sentiment in highly public case is of course anything but a guarantee of a fair trial in Sweden, so in that sense publishing all the hostile opinions from Sweden is counterproductive.

As for your second question, because of government secrecy all we can do is to speculate, and simplest speculation is that it would have been pointless to ask Britain to extradite him, because he was already wanted by Sweden and the legal process was going on, and it would be pointless to officially ask Sweden to extradite before they got him and can deliver. US was probably just as surprised by the seeking of asylum as Britain was. And before you ask, it would be pointless to ask Ecuador to extradite him to US, as they granted asylum against that very possibility.