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.
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.
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.
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.
The extreme confidence is justified. There hasn't been anything irregular. Can anyone point to actual irregularities? He's been accused of a crime. He's being extradited on that basis.
It's theoretically possible that these accusations have been concocted to destroy his reputation (in the way that you could claim this of pretty much any public figure [or pariah] who is accused of a crime). But I think it requires a pretty big leap of imagination, and no-one has produced any actual evidence to suggest it is the case (beyond vague insinuations of Swedish obligation to the USA). And, more fundamentally, I think all involved have a right to resolve the matter in court.
You can't give a free pass to people who are accused of rape simply because it is theoretically possible that it's a plot designed to smear them.
