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Same problem here with Python 2.4 (#1, Jan 13 2005,
20:34:41) on SuSE Linux 9.2 (i586) and imaplib. Here is a
minimal piece of code that fails (substitute a valid IMAP
server accepting SSL connections):

=== start code snippet ===
import imaplib, socket
socket.setdefaulttimeout(10.0)
imaplib.IMAP4_SSL("imap.whatever.invalid")
=== end code snippet ===

This fails with the following traceback:
=== start traceback ===
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./imap_bug.py", line 3, in ?
    imaplib.IMAP4_SSL("imap.whatever.invalid")
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.4/imaplib.py", line 1101, in
__init__
    IMAP4.__init__(self, host, port)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.4/imaplib.py", line 181, in
__init__
    self.welcome = self._get_response()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.4/imaplib.py", line 876, in
_get_response
    resp = self._get_line()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.4/imaplib.py", line 969, in
_get_line
    line = self.readline()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.4/imaplib.py", line 1135, in
readline
    char = self.sslobj.read(1)
socket.sslerror: The read operation timed out
=== end traceback ===

Remove the socket.setdefaulttimeout call and it works properly.
The problem is not due to a slow network connection or
overloaded server -- the script fails for all kinds of
timeouts (1, 10, 100 seconds), but without a timeout the
response is near-instantaneous.