U.S. President George W. Bush and his national security team will meet Monday with members of a bipartisan commission tasked with producing recommendations for strategy in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group, led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, is expected to report its recommendations before the end of the year. Members of the group will have a joint conference at the White House with Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. The group will also have individual meetings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, and Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden. They are also expected to speak with Zalmay Khalizad, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad. The newly-designated candidate for Rumsfeld's job, Robert Gates, is a former member of the Iraq Study Group. He is resigning and will not take part in Monday's meetings, White House press secretary Tony Snow said.
