More info in this forum thread: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=159815#159815
This is taken care of in CVS. It's a DEPEND issue involving USE flags... || ( false? (whatver) ) fails.
Nick -- can this bug be closed at this stage? If no, what else do we need to close it?
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 12630 ***