James Brandon (born 20 September 1980) is a British journalist, who was kidnapped in Iraq during 2004 while on assignment from the Sunday Telegraph and The Scotsman, covering the occupation and insurgency. He was kidnapped by the Mahdi Army militia and was released after one day.
Brandon was educated at Westminster School and then the University of York, where he read history and graduated in 2001 with first class honours. He subsequently spent four months working for the Yemen Times as a sub-editor and reporter, when he learned Arabic. He then enrolled in the School of Oriental and African Studies, reading "modern trends in Islam", before joining the Baghdad Bulletin in July 2003, a start-up, non-aligned Iraqi paper staffed mainly by Oxbridge graduates, especially those from his school, and offering a variety of widely differing viewpoints on recent events. Born to an Egyptian Coptic Christian father, Ramsay Nassim, Brandon changed his surname by deed poll in 2001.
At roughly 23:00 local time, on August 13, 2004 in Basra, Brandon was snatched from his room at the Diafa hotel by about 30 masked gunmen, some in police uniform. Later a video tape was released, featuring Brandon and a hooded militant, threatening to kill him within 24 hours unless US forces withdrew from Najaf, where they had cordoned off Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Brandon was released after less than a day, following intervention by Moqtada al-Sadr. At a press conference immediately after his release, Brandon commented on his treatment and thanked his kidnappers: "Initially I was treated roughly, but once they knew I was a journalist I was treated very well and I want to say thank you to the people who kidnapped me." A spokesman for al-Sadr said: "We apologise for what happened to you. This is not our tradition, not our rules. It is not the tradition of Islam."
In a Sunday Telegraph feature, Brandon gives a detailed account of the kidnap. He describes being beaten and pistol-whipped by his angry kidnappers, as well as a series of mock executions. He recounts escaping, after holding a woman at knife-point, to a government building where guards found him, but his evasion attempt failed when the guards phoned his kidnappers, who promptly arrived to collect him. Although he expected to be killed, the video with the ultimatum was then recorded. Despite being told repeatedly that he was a journalist, his kidnappers appear to have assumed he was a spy or agent for the occupation. It was only when they saw a report about the kidnap on al-Arabiya television that his kidnappers came to believe him. Brandon's treatment improved markedly and he was told he was going to be released. Later he was taken to Sadr’s Basra office where the press conference took place. Brandon was delivered to the British military police who gave him medical treatment and escorted him to Kuwait the following day. Brandon planned to see his family and go on holiday, but said he wanted to return to Iraq : "Only next time, I just want to do the reporting. I have no desire to be the story again."