I need a definitive answer, documented with authoritative sources, to
the question of whether an open WiFi connection, such as one might
find at Starbuck's, is in ANY way secure, particularly when SSL is
implemented, and if it is not secure, can it be made secure and how?

for reference, and for understanding my confusion, please see:

http://hardware.mcse.ms/message64903.html

and the final section (entitled "Security in Public Spaces") located at:

http://www.wi-fi.org/OpenSection/secure.asp?TID=2#public

thanks!

Yes, it is very secure.
With a secure WiFi connection, you would have two layers on security,
SSL on top of WiFI security. With an open WiFi connection, you have
only one layer of security, SSL, but that is more than enough.

Say you are taking to a friend in a language only you and him
understand and NO ONE else does. Even if someone taps your phone line,
it does not matter, because they still don't understand the language.

The only problem, just like with the telephone example, the bad guy
knows whom you are talking to and how long, but not what you are
saying.

I?ll leave it to the researchers to provide some references.

Hi cosmiccowboy-ga,

   SSL by itself is secure, so it should be good enough for the access using
any hotspots even without inherent security.  This assumes your browser is not
compromised, your pc/notebook free of any hidden worms/malware, your os patched
for any known security vulnerabilities, you also have a good antivirus and
intrusion detection software, you have not enabled services that are insecure
and are using highly recommended security settings for the internet, your
connection is established through a non-spoofed domain name server, your ssl
session is not hijacked/redirected, the hotspot does not run on an insecure pc
or accesspoint(with no posibility of someone changing the network settings)
and also have an additional firewall to protect the connected hosts, does not
have insecure caching/proxy servers, does not employ a transparent proxy server.

Although the possibilities of an SSL compromise is very low, it cannot be
ruled out!.

Regards
ldavinci-ga