Which can be a good thing, as you're not supposed to use any Java code in JSP
But Java EE 5 compliance requires a Java SE 5 compatible SDK. So even if you don't put Java code in JSP scriptlets yourself, there might be Java 5 features (namely generics or possibly auto-(un)boxing) generated by the container... then the JSPs wouldn't compile anyway*, through no fault of your own
I've never seen a container do that before though, so can't help the original poster I'm afraid. I'm sure standard debugging techniques will solve the problem -- they usually do. An upgrade of the Tomcat version to 5.5 (or 6.0) would probably also help.
* Note: container dependent. So I'm not saying they actually won't compile if the page uses Java 1.3 source compatibility, but that compilation isn't guaranteed given the Java EE 5 requirements.
Charles Lyons (SCJP 1.4, April 2003; SCJP 5, Dec 2006; SCWCD 1.4b, April 2004)
Author of OCEJWCD Study Companion for Oracle Exam 1Z0-899 (ISBN 0955160340 / Amazon Amazon UK )