So says Andrew Cochran over at the Counterterrorism Blog regarding Sami Al-Arian’s acquittal yesterday on 8 of the 17 charges brought against him. Cochran calls it “the most important terrorism-related trial in the U.S. since the 9/11 attacks.” Worse, he concludes that “the verdicts are an enormous defeat for the Justice Department and, I predict, will have a chilling effect on all planned terrorism prosecutions, especially in Florida … Yes, the government can retry Al-Arian on the deadlocked counts, but realistically, that will be very tough.”