The problem is that he's also wanted for leaking secret documents (like Snowden), and there's a high chance that the allegations were only intended so he can be arrested in a country that has an extradition policy with the US. He fears for his life, and given the US's "secret" concentration camps (Guantanamo, secret CIA bases, secret planes waiting to move Snowden, etc), I don't blame him.
So your logic is that this was all contrived in an effort to get Assange to a country with an extradition treaty in the US, when he was already in Britain? Because Britain is well known for its cold relationship with the US and repeated refusal to extradite people to the US, right?
Not buying it. (Also EU law would prevent Sweden from extraditing him to the US without British consent anyhow. So either Britain is okay with his extradition and there's no need to get him to Sweden, or they're not and there's no point. And that's not even touching on the fact that Sweden couldn't extradite him to the US without an assurance that he could not face execution, which is politically very unlikely to happen. I don't doubt the US would love to grab Assange, but the legal extradition question is a complete red herring.)
In the UK extraditions to the US are generally won or lost in the court of public opinion. It is unlikely that the US would attempt to do this with Assange in the UK as it would immediately turn into a three ring media circus with Assange as ringmaster and would become a very political hot potato.
Much better to do it in a country with a Byzantine legal system, a foreign language and less developed media. Especially one that has been tame in past.
See Gary McKinnon as an example of a high profile extradition attempt from the UK.
Strange comment .. He was already arrested in the UK, which has an extremely liberal extradition policy with the US. He spent a week in Wandsworth prison.
I believe the legal term for that is bollocks. The procedures are here[1]. Note that it forbids extradition if the person would face the death penalty.
Although the death penalty in the US seems to be a very remote possibility, one gathers that the prospect of 45 years in a US jail is not. At present it looks like 45 years in the UK Ecuadorian Embassy: ""We will not allow Mr. Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom nor is there any legal basis for us to do so," UK Foreign Minister.
