The bug can be verified with the example program
attached to this bugs. Two files are attached:
my_thread.py and main.py

When main.py is executed the thread hangs on
subprocess.Popen, while my_thread.py, which is imported
by main.py runs without problems. In fact both should
do exactly the same since main.py doesn nothing but
importing my_thread.

My python version:

Python 2.4.2 (#1, Oct 17 2005, 09:05:20)
[GCC 3.3.6 (Gentoo 3.3.6, ssp-3.3.6-1.0, pie-8.7.8)] on
linux2

If any more info is required,