evidence: One lawsuit highlighted the actions of an undercover officer who went on a college rafting trip to monitor students, and recorded how often students on the trip prayed. Michael Bloomberg, who took office as mayor of New York months after the attacks has since said the controversial surveillance program was part of an effort to keep the United States safe. In an interview with PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff, Bloomberg in Feb. 2020 said that surveilling the American Muslim community was "a natural place to go." "All of the people came from the same place and all that came were from a place they happened to be one religion. And if they’d been another religion, we would’ve done the same thing," Bloomberg said. "It does not, incidentally, mean that all Muslims are terrorists or all terrorists are Muslim. But, the people that flew those airplanes came from the Middle East and some of the imams were urging more of the same," Bloomberg said, pointing to claims that "there were imams who publicly at that time were urging the terrorism."