[kubanczyk]

Parent said "in the source code" not "in the Linux source code". Given the abysmal standards of security everywhere, it's quite logical thing to assume that many parties have backdoors scattered around various OSes. A tempting target with such multiplicative benefits.

I don't think it's a paranoid question and I don't think it's even a question. It's a natural assumption and I'd demand exceptionally good evidence to challenge that.

Points for Linux for its openness, people will probably catch some of these.