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The number of Muslims in the UK being looked at in the belief that they may be involved directly or indirectly in supporting terrorism runs into "thousands", Peter Clarke, Head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch, reveals in an interview to be broadcast this Sunday on Al-Qaeda - Time to Talk?

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In the interview with the 91Èȱ¬'s Peter Taylor - at 9.00pm on 91Èȱ¬ TWO - Peter Clarke says: "What we've learnt since 9/11 is that the threat is not something that's simply coming from overseas into the United Kingdom.

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"What we've learnt, and what we've seen all too graphically and all too murderously, is that we have a threat which is being generated here within the United Kingdom."

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Asked roughly how many Muslims in the UK he was looking at in the belief that they may be involved directly or indirectly in terrorism, Peter Clarke replies: "I don't want to go down the numbers game, I don't think it's helpful.

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"All I can say is that our knowledge is increasing and certainly in terms of broad description, the numbers of people who we have to be interested in, are into the thousands."

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Pressed on this answer he expands: "In total - but as I say, that includes a whole range of people, not just terrorists, not just attackers, but the people who might be tempted to support or encourage or to assist."

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The programme also looks at the case of Idris Bazis from Manchester. Bazis was a 41-year-old French Algerian who had been living in Britain for two years. It is believed that he had already trained in Afghanistan and fought jihad in Bosnia. He's believed to have died in a suicide attack in Iraq.

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Peter Taylor's investigation concludes that Bazis was sent to Iraq via a pipeline stretching from the UK via the Middle East to Iraq.

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Asked if there is a pipeline or pipelines that carry young British Muslims out of the UK and into Iraq, Peter Clarke says: "What we do see is individuals who, with connections, who managed to facilitate people's travel. And I think that's a better way to describe it, there's probably a collection of individuals who are happy to try to organise the travel of others."

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Questioned on whether he knows who they are and if they are being watched, Peter Clarke responds: "We know who some of them are, yes. We investigate, we carry out surveillance on a lot of people, but I'm not going to say exactly who."

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"Al-Qaeda - Time to Talk?" also reports on the story of Barbara, the French girlfriend of Peter Cherif, who was recruited in the Paris district of Buttes Chaumont by Farid Benyettou. Benyettou is thought to have radicalised around 20 young Muslims from the area and is now in jail.

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Peter was arrested without ID in Fallujah around the time of the American assault. He was imprisoned in Abu Graib. In July this year he was sentenced to 15 years.

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Barbara describes how he became more and more distant as he became radicalised.

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She says: "In the beginning, what bothered him was that we had an intimate relationship out of wedlock, so I told him that if it's the only thing that bothered him, we could stop; then we had to stop touching each other, even to kiss or to hold hands. It was forbidden so I said, 'It's okay, I don't mind'.

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"Then we continued to talk a lot on the phone. We had always been a couple calling each other a lot at every opportunity, so that had remained.

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"Until the day that his teacher told him that it was forbidden to be on the phone with someone when he was by himself, so we talked on the internet. Then it also became forbidden on the internet because we were also by ourselves.

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"The internet became forbidden and when we met at his place there had to be someone else there. Then first we sat at the table next to each other, then I was at the table and he was on the sofa, them a bit further; he moved away and away from me progressively".

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Barbara tells the programme that Cherif went to Syria, saying he was going on holiday to learn the language and study Islam in more depth.

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When he called her she checked the country code on the internet and discovered he had been calling from Iraq.

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