Carmen Sosa, mother of suspected terrorist Jose Pimentel, speaks to the media outside her apartment on West 137th Street (Photo by Lucy Pawle)

Fighting back tears, Carmen Sosa apologized today for her son’s alleged actions. “I didn’t raise him that way,” she said of Jose Pimentel, 27, arrested Saturday on terrorism charges. “He changed.”

Speaking in the hallway outside the apartment they shared on West 137^th Street, where he was arrested, Sosa said she was “very disappointed in my son.”  Police said Pimentel, an unemployed U.S. citizen of Dominican origin and apparently influenced by the jihadi writings of Anwar al-Awlaki, was plotting to bomb U.S. military personnel, police cars and precinct houses and uptown post offices.

Sosa explained that Pimentel began reading the Koran in 2001 and said his increasing radicalization had prompted her, two years ago, to move him back to New York from Schenectady, N.Y., where he had been living at her other home.  “I brought him here because I didn’t like the way he was acting,” she said.

Shock and disbelief were the primary uptown reactions to Saturday’s arrest.

Harlem and Washington Heights neighbors who knew Pimentel, reportedly under police surveillance since 2009, said he spent his days sitting alone outside the apartment building, smoking cigarettes.

“He seemed nice,” said Simon Islam, 36, who moved into the building five months ago with his wife and daughters. “He used to talk to everyone when they came in and out the building, but he was very quiet. He just used to smoke,” Islam said.

Juan Rey, whose mother lives in the building, described Pimentel as “a nice guy who used to open the door for people when they were carrying their groceries.”

David Rodriguez, who’d known Pimentel for a year, said he “never saw the look of terrorism in him.” Expressing astonishment at the arrest, he said Pimentel “could have blown the whole building up and no one would have known“ that he was the bomber. “His own grandmother wouldn’t know.” He described Pimentel as a regular guy in sweatpants and sweaters. “I never saw him praying; he wore regular clothes,” Rodriguez said. “I just can’t believe it.”

Pimentel sometimes welcomed Islam with “As-Salamu Alaykum” – a traditional Muslim greeting – and had explained to him how he’d converted to Islam from Catholicism. “He said he converted six or seven years ago,” Islam said. “Once I was drinking here with friends and cousins, and he pointed and said, ‘No, no. It’s not good.’”

But around the corner at Nadal1Deli, employee Mohammed “Alex” Alohdd pointed out that Pimentel didn’t fast during Ramadan. “He called himself a Muslim, but he wasn’t a proper Muslim,” Alohddi said. “I’ve known him for three years but I didn’t like him that much. I just didn’t feel good with him. He used to ask people outside for cigarettes.”

Senator Adriano Espaillat, Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and Assemblyman Guillermo Morales at a press conference outside the 34th Precinct on Monday (Photo by Lucy Pawle)

At the Islamic Cultural Center of New York on East 96th Street, where Pimentel visited, according to his mother, Imam Omar Abu Namous echoed Aloddi’s sentiments. “These circumstances, that he used to come to this mosque, are only coincidences, and have no relationship whatsoever with his activities,” the imam said. He hadn’t  heard of the arrest and didn’t recognize Pimentel’s name, but said that if Pimentel had confided in a fellow parishioner, “they would have informed me and I would have informed the government.”

Emphasizing his opposition to fundamentalist ideology, the imam described the Islamic Cultural Center as fostering peace. He worried that Pimentel’s arrest would spark Islamophobia. “People have a deep misunderstanding about Islam,” Abu Namous.

At the Home Depot in the Bronx where Pimentel allegedly bought the components to make pipe bombs, an employee who identified himself only as Carlito said that staff are trained to spot suspicious customers. “We look for certain products and if they’re buying them in one cart, it raises a red flag,” he said. But the supplies that Pimentel used – PVC piping, bleach and chlorine among others – are inexpensive, everyday items, Carlito said. “Nothing like this has happened at this store, not that I know of,” said Carlito.

At Hamilton Grange Station, a post office on West 146^th Street, sales and services employee Michelle Williams couldn’t believe what had happened. “I’m a little scared and I was surprised that it was in this neighborhood,” she said, “I didn’t think they would target post offices.”

Local politicians were swift to praise the police department’s actions. At a press conference outside the 34^th Precinct, State Senator Adriano Espaillat talked of the dangers that young people face online. “It shows the Internet should be policed,” he said. He denied that terrorists were specifically recruiting Hispanics, but added, “This is outrageous and we must be vigilant.”

City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez said that if found guilty, Pimentel “should be condemned by the full force of the law.” Though most families work hard to raise children “with strong values, for them be able to contribute to our city,” he said, “we need to work tight and we need to work hard,” to prevent such incidents from recurring.

At Pimentel’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court last night, his attorney Joseph Zablocki said he believed the case against his client is not “nearly as strong as people believe.”

Ydanis Rodriguez speaks at a campaign rally before Tuesday's election. (Photo courtesy of Ydanis2009)

Ydanis Rodriguez, the long standing favorite to win the 10th District seat on the City Council, spent election day canvassing Inwood, trying to rouse support at the polls. His message was clear — get out and vote for Bill Thompson.

“Today, I am asking that you remember to cast your vote down the Democratic line!” Rodriguez told supporters in email messages and postings on his campaign web site.

Nearly two months after winning the Democratic primary with a landslide 60 percent of the vote, Rodriguez slammed independent Ruben Dario Vargas in Tuesday’s general election, getting 95 percent of the vote. In the 10th District, 10,672 residents cast votes for Rodriguez, compared with 592 for Vargas.

“I’ll bring the voice of our community to City Hall,” Rodriguez said in a recent interview. “I’ll work with anyone who will bring resources to the community.”

After his primary victory in September, Rodriguez continued to work out of his campaign headquarters on 177th Street, meeting with community leaders and campaigning for Thompson.

“I would like to thank you for all the hard work and dedication to this campaign and our community,” Rodriguez said in a message to his supporters on his web site Tuesday.

Rodriguez ran unsuccessfully for the District 10 seat in 2001 and 2003, narrowly losing to Miguel Martinez on his second try. Martinez represented the district for eight years until, in July, he resigned and pleaded guilty to stealing more than $100,000 in public funds.

Despite his two narrow defeats and Martinez’s resignation, Rodriguez insists his campaign success had its roots in classic political principles.

“Two years ago we decided our slogan would be ‘Honesty, Dignity, Transparency,’” Rodriguez said. “We put it in writing two years ago. I got my values from my parents and that’s how I’ll conduct myself as the City Council representative for this area.”

What Rodriguez did do better than any of his opponents was raise money. The Rodriguez campaign raised $122,986, more than three and a half times the amount raised by any other candidate in the District 10 race, according to the City Campaign Finance Board. Six unions donated $2,750, the maximum allowed from an outside source, and Rodriguez contributed $3,000 of his own money.

One of 11 children born to farm workers in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez immigrated to Washington Heights at 18. He worked as a taxi driver while earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from City College and a master’s degree in bilingual education from the City University of New York. Rodriguez was a founding teacher of Gregorio Luperon High School, which specializes in the education of new immigrant children. He has taught at the school for 14 years.

During a recent interview at his campaign office, Rodriguez appeared ready to make the transition from educator to legislator.

“As soon as I take office I’ll continue supporting bills that make sense for all New Yorkers,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll be putting a lot of energy into bills for quality education, for more money for legal services for tenants, more money for tenants associations.”

Rodriguez plans to draw on his experience as a teacher to improve education in his district. “Education is my top priority,” he said. “I’ll work with other elected officials for early education, zero to 5 early education programs with art, music, gymnastics. Programs other communities take for granted don’t exist in Washington Heights. I’ll work with my colleagues to bring them here.”

One of the many challenges facing educators in District 10 is teaching a large Spanish-speaking population.

“At some schools at the neighborhood level, 70 percent or more children in the city are Spanish speaking,” said Maria Torres-Guzman, professor of bilingual education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

To address the large number of children requiring bilingual education, Rodriguez said he plans to explore all available options. According to Torres-Guzman, one of the most successful programs has been “dual immersion,” in which native Spanish and native English speakers learn both languages concurrently and become fluent in both.

“There’s a misconception that dual language is for the middle class,” Torres-Guzman said. “You don’t have to transition out of anything, and the results have been fabulous.”

“There may be a place for that in our community,” Rodriguez said, asked about dual immersion programs. “I’ll support any program that guarantees a quality education. We must be open to creative change. Change what’s not working, bring in new programs.”

Despite his excitement, Rodriguez is saddened to leave his teaching career. “Education is what gave me the opportunity to be what I am today,” he said. Yet, in the midst of the long transition, he appeared ready to get to work. “This is an opportunity for me to continue what I’ve been doing my whole life. Now I have a staff and an office. I’m excited.”