Okay, so the problem seems to have been resolved, and in this case it does 
seem to be a TDE problem; or at least, a problem with the kopete-trinity 
package. 

I cannot torify Kopete, and the available configurations are obsolete. I got 
away with not being able to configure within the client by torifying Kopete 
over a secure shell. But now that doesn't work. 

However, for myself the problem is solved by using psi-plus, which seems to 
work great (so far ... fingers crossed), and has the further advantage of 
being a cross-platform application, rather that specific to TDE or (for that 
other version of Kopete) the KDE4+ versions. 

I don't know if this qualifies as something to be investigated by the devs, 
but there it is. 

Bill