WASHINGTON — It's a nightmare scenario that awakens some U.S. intelligence officials at night: Pakistani-American youths will enter the country to carry out terrorist attacks after spending time at radical religious schools and al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan.

Officials say it hasn't happened, and some experts warn against labeling all young Americans who study in Pakistan as potential terrorists.

But the high-profile return home of two U.S.-born Pakistani-American teenagers last week who spent four years at a radical Islamic madrassa in Karachi has focused fresh attention on the potential threat, even though the brothers have no known ties to terrorism.

Their saga stirred concern among some members of Texas' congressional delegation, prompting a call for congressional hearings and a request by 10 Republican members of the House for Pakistan to deport the estimated 700 Americans studying at the madrassas.

"From al-Qaida's standpoint, Pakistanis with American nationality are very attractive targets to recruit," says Bruce Riedel, a former career intelligence officer whose assignments included responsibility for South Asia. "They would have American passports that mean when they get to Dulles International Airport (outside Washington, D.C.) or George Bush International Airport (in Houston), they just sail right through."

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