James Nathanson

James Nathanson was an ex-CIA officer and a low-level member of the cabal behind the plot to detonate twenty canisters of Sentox nerve gas while in the hands of Russian terrorists.

By doing this, Nathanson and the members of the plot (Walt Cummings, Christopher Henderson, President Charles Logan, Graem Bauer, and others) hoped to eradicate one of the world's elite terrorist regimes and increase American interests in Central Asia. The plot required direct communication with the terrorist factions, which is seen as treason by many government officials. Nathanson served as the middleman between Cummings and Logan, which meant that Cummings had no idea that Logan himself was involved with the plot.

Day 5


James Nathanson was responsible for most of the events that took place during the first several hours of Day 5. When President David Palmer learned about the plot that Nathanson and his associates were planning, he planned on exposing it, but Conrad Haas was hired to take him out.

Along with Walt Cummings, Christopher Henderson and Haas, Nathanson had a major role in executing the death of President Palmer. Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, and Chloe O'Brian also became targets, in order to set up Jack Bauer for Palmer's assassination. While Palmer and Michelle were killed, Tony only found himself critically wounded, with Chloe being able to escape from Haas' wrath with Jack's help.

During the second hour of Day 5, Nathanson was in constant contact with Anton Beresch. Nathanson and Beresch agreed to go dark when Beresch took the Ontario Airport hostage. The hostage crisis was used in an attempt to stop President Charles Logan from signing a terrorism peace treay with President Yuri Suvarov, the Russian president.

When Walt Cummings learned that Bauer was inside the airport and working with CTU Los Angeles in order to play out a rescue operation, Cummings contacted Nathanson with this information. Realizing the situation could be reversed and things could go wrong, Nathanson contacted Beresch and told him about the news. After threatening to kill Derek Huxley, Beresch managed to persuade Bauer to surrender.



Despite having Jack at his disposal, Beresch's actions at the airport were partially unsuccessful, as CTU was able to storm into the airport and prevent themselves from being ambushed. However, Beresch was able to hand a keycard over to Ivan Erwich, who was posing as a hostage. With this keycard, Erwich gained access to Sentox VX Nerve gas, and Nathanson provided them transportation out of the hangar.

Eventually CTU learned about the nerve gas plot, and Walt Cummings was exposed as a traitor. Cummings attempted to negotiate with Erwich, but Erwich refused and threaten to release the gas on US soil. Nathanson's intentions soon became apparent, when he attempted to have the nerve gas blow up in the terrorists' faces. When Vladimir Bierko learned about Nathanson's betrayal, he decided to order a hit on him. Ostroff arrived at Nathanson's computer lab, and executed one of his subordinates there, but Nathanson himself had fled.



Fleeing from Bierko's men, Nathanson called a co-conspirator, Alpha 7, and warned him that Bierko was eliminating them for their betrayal. The contact was shot before he could say anything, and Nathanson disconnected in shock. Desperate, he then called Audrey Raines, a DOD liason for CTU, to cut a deal. Nathanson agreed to help find the nerve gas, but he would only work with Jack Bauer. Audrey patched her call with Nathanson over to Jack, and Nathanson gave Jack a location. Realizing this was his only lead, Jack was forced to assault Curtis Manning and escape from CTU custody.

At the meeting place, Ostroff and other separatists showed up and attempted to kill Nathanson, but a running gunfight started and Nathanson tried to flee. While on the rooftop, Nathanson was fatally wounded by a machine-gun fire from the helicopter. Bauer arrived and fired on the chopper, forcing the crew to land it. Bauer received a computer chip from Nathanson. Before his death, Nathanson hinted to Jack that Cummings was not the only member of Logan's administration that was complicit in the plan. The chip enabled Jack to track down Christopher Henderson, another primary conspirator.

Later in the day, it was revealed that President Logan himself was a director of the conspiracy, demonstrating that Nathanson served as a middleman, distorting the truth so that Cummings could not know that Logan was involved. It was eventually learned that Graem Bauer was pulling the real strings, and Phillip Bauer was complicit in the plan as well. During Day 7, it was further revealed that the entire conspiracy had been engineered by Alan Wilson.

Background information and notes

 * The role of James Nathanson was originally intended for Peter Wingfield, who had to withdraw when visa/work permit issues could not be resolved in time. Wingfield was replaced by Geraint Wyn Davies. However, Wingfield would later go on to play the role of David Emerson during Season 7