Administration Denies Planning to Use Troops in Capital Drug Fight

The Bush Administration denied Tuesday that federal troops were being readied for an assault on drug dealers in the nation’s capital, and the city government again moved to keep teen-agers off its streets at night.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that calling up the National Guard or regular military troops “is most unlikely,” and drug czar William J. Bennett called a report that Bush was considering the option “just nonsense.”

“I discussed this with the President this morning, and his position is all options are open . . . but this (use of troops) is the least likely,” Fitzwater told reporters.

Special Strike Force

An aide to Bennett said that setting up a special strike force to hit the streets in drug-plagued neighborhoods is one of the options under serious consideration, and it could include agents of the FBI or Drug Enforcement Administration as well as local police officers.

City Council member Frank Smith, whose ordinance to impose a nighttime curfew on teen-agers was temporarily blocked Monday by a federal judge, said he would not fight the order in court.

Instead, on Tuesday, Smith proposed a new curfew bill that draws heavily from an alternative version proposed by Mayor Marion Barry. The American Civil Liberties Union had argued that the initial curfew measure was too broad.

Smith said he would formally introduce the bill this week and expects the measure to be voted on by April 4.

Bill Exempts Some Minors

The revised bill specifically exempts minors accompanied by their parents, those returning directly home from a sanctioned event, those traveling through the district by car to another state and those legally employed.