September 10, 2026
Midtown Tribune Editorial Staff
On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Midtown Tribune has formally asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to locate records concerning an extraordinary allegation: that Russian parliament member Konstantin Borovoy provided U.S. authorities in 1999 with information about a planned terrorist attack involving Osama bin Laden, civilian passenger aircraft, and alleged participation by Russian intelligence personnel.
The request does not ask the FBI to accept Borovoy’s allegations as established fact.
It asks a narrower question that should be susceptible to documentary verification:
Did the FBI receive the information Borovoy says he provided before September 11, 2001 — and, if so, what did the Bureau do with it?
Midtown Tribune submitted the electronic Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI on September 10, 2026.
What Borovoy Says He Told the FBI
In a recorded conversation with retired U.S. Navy Captain Gary “Yuri” Tabach, Borovoy described events he says began in approximately September 1999.
Full Borovoy–Tabach interview:
https://youtu.be/kTp3QtKvKsw
Borovoy says two individuals whom he identified as officers of Russian military intelligence — the GRU — approached him with information that a terrorist attack was being prepared on U.S. territory.
According to Borovoy, the information involved Osama bin Laden and civilian passenger aircraft.
But the central allegation in Borovoy’s account goes considerably further than advance knowledge of a terrorist attack.
Borovoy says that the information he took to the FBI concerned alleged participation by Russian intelligence or security personnel together with bin Laden in preparing the terrorist operation.
That allegation is now one of the principal subjects of Midtown Tribune’s FBI records request.
There is also an important limitation to Borovoy’s claim.
When specifically asked whether his information was that Vladimir Putin intended to attack New York, Borovoy said he did not possess information that Putin personally was going to attack New York. He distinguished that proposition from the information he says he actually received concerning bin Laden’s organization and Russian intelligence personnel.
That distinction matters. Midtown Tribune is seeking records concerning what Borovoy actually says he reported — not expanding his statement beyond his own account.
Borovoy Says He Gave the FBI Written Information
Borovoy’s account contains details that should potentially leave a documentary trail.
He says his Russian sources provided information on paper, although the paper was unsigned. He states that he brought the information to an FBI representative associated with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and identified the two sources to American officials.
According to Borovoy, the FBI representative told him that the matter was beyond his level and needed to be handled at FBI headquarters in Washington.
Borovoy says he subsequently traveled to the United States and met with senior FBI personnel.
He describes a meeting involving multiple FBI personnel and a translator. He also says another person who had been present during one of the original meetings with the alleged GRU sources appeared as a witness and confirmed that the intelligence officers had provided Borovoy with the information.
If these events occurred as described, potentially responsive records could include FBI interview reports, FD-302 forms, memoranda, leads, referrals, cables, meeting records, intelligence assessments or internal correspondence.
Borovoy Was Already Warning Congress in 1999
One important piece of Borovoy’s history does not depend upon a later recollection.
In October 1999, Borovoy testified before the U.S. House Committee on International Relations.
The official congressional record is preserved by the U.S. Government Publishing Office:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-106hhrg62963/html/CHRG-106hhrg62963.htm
In that testimony, Borovoy warned that corruption and the criminalization of Russian security structures were affecting Russian foreign policy. He described hostility toward NATO and the United States, anti-American propaganda and support for hostile actors abroad.
He then warned that Russia was moving toward what he called a small “evil empire” hostile to the rest of the democratic world.
Most strikingly, he told American lawmakers that the United States might eventually find itself in circumstances comparable to the period preceding the tragedy at Pearl Harbor.
The 1999 congressional testimony does not contain Borovoy’s later specific account involving bin Laden and civilian aircraft.
It therefore cannot by itself establish that Congress was told about the alleged aviation plot.
What it does establish is significant nonetheless: in 1999 Borovoy was already publicly and formally warning American lawmakers that developments within Russia presented a serious danger to the United States.
Brighton Beach News has preserved Borovoy’s 1999 congressional material here:
Borovoy Says the FBI Later Acknowledged Receiving His Information
Borovoy makes another assertion that may be particularly susceptible to verification.
He states that around 2003, a congressional inquiry was made asking the FBI whether it had received his information before September 11.
According to Borovoy, the FBI responded that the information had been received, but was not sufficiently acted upon because other intelligence agencies had not corroborated it.
If that account is accurate, there may be congressional correspondence, an FBI response or internal records documenting the exchange.
Midtown Tribune’s September 10 FOIA request specifically asks the FBI to locate those records.
A Second Line of Allegations: Vladimir Malsagov
Borovoy is not the only Russian-speaking dissident to have made allegations involving Russian security structures and bin Laden’s network.
In 2008, dissident Vladimir Malsagov, author of Russian Mafia — FSB, gave an interview concerning his book and the September 11 attacks.
A preserved copy of the interview is available through the Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220223020924/https://www.kontinent.org/article.php?aid=48e69a4aa604f
Malsagov was asked directly what evidence supported his allegations concerning Russian security services and September 11.
He responded that when he recorded information in his diaries, he did not know Alexander Litvinenko, but claimed that they ultimately received information from overlapping circles of people close to Kremlin and FSB structures.
That claim itself requires verification.
More important for investigation, however, is a much more specific episode Malsagov dates to 1997.
U.S. Civil Aviation Security Information?
Malsagov said that in 1997 he spoke with a close relative of former Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.
According to Malsagov, that person said he had personally seen secret materials concerning U.S. civil aviation security.
Malsagov alleged that Yandarbiyev received those materials from Khozh-Ahmed Nukhaev, and further alleged that information originated through analytical elements of the Russian security system.
He then made the much more serious claim that Russian security services used Yandarbiyev to deliver those materials to Afghanistan, to bin Laden and his associates, and to encourage terrorist operations.
These claims have not been independently established by Midtown Tribune.
But unlike a generalized conspiracy theory, Malsagov’s account contains potentially testable components:
a year, named individuals, alleged documents, an alleged route of transmission, and an alleged destination.
Those elements can potentially be compared against travel records, archives, intelligence documents, contemporaneous diaries, interviews and other sources.
Brighton Beach News preserved this material years ago:
The Litvinenko–al-Zawahiri Allegation
Malsagov also discussed allegations made by former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko.
According to Malsagov’s presentation of Litvinenko’s account, a senior figure from bin Laden’s network had been present in Dagestan in circumstances allegedly involving Russian security services before subsequently reaching Afghanistan.
The figure referred to in this line of allegations has been identified in other accounts as Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later became the leader of al-Qaeda after bin Laden’s death.
Again, the crucial distinction is between what is historically documented and what Litvinenko alleged about the meaning of those events.
The fact that al-Zawahiri spent time in Russian custody during the 1990s is one question.
Whether Russian intelligence recruited, trained, assisted or manipulated him is an entirely different and far more serious proposition requiring independent evidence.
Three Lines That Need to Be Tested Separately
The emerging historical question therefore should not be reduced to:
“Was Borovoy right?”
There are at least three distinguishable lines of allegations:
Konstantin Borovoy: an alleged 1999 warning concerning bin Laden, civilian aircraft and Russian intelligence personnel, which Borovoy says he delivered to the FBI.
Vladimir Malsagov: allegations concerning U.S. civil aviation information, Nukhaev, Yandarbiyev and Afghanistan, which he dates in part to 1997.
Alexander Litvinenko: allegations concerning Russian security services and figures associated with bin Laden’s organization.
The critical investigative task is determining whether these lines are genuinely independent — and whether any of them can be connected to contemporaneous records created before September 11, 2001.
The Date of the Evidence Matters More Than the Date of the Interview
This distinction is fundamental.
Someone saying in 2008 that he knew something in 1997 does not prove that the information existed in 1997.
But a diary demonstrably written in 1997 is different.
A manuscript provably transferred before September 11 is different.
An FBI memorandum recording a meeting in 1999 is different.
A State Department cable, intelligence referral or congressional communication created before the attacks would be different.
That is why Midtown Tribune is asking government agencies for records rather than asking readers to accept these extraordinary allegations on faith.
What the Established Investigation Says
The established U.S. investigative record identifies al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s organization as responsible for the September 11 attacks.
The FBI describes its investigation — code-named PENTTBOM — as the largest case in Bureau history.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and-criminals/911-investigation
A later FBI 9/11 Review Commission concluded that the information it examined did not alter the original findings concerning those responsible for the attacks.
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/final-9-11-review-commission-report-unclassified.pdf
Nothing presented in this article overturns the established finding that al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks.
The question raised here is different:
Did Russian intelligence or security personnel have some role in assisting, encouraging or participating in preparations involving bin Laden’s network — and did Konstantin Borovoy tell the FBI about such allegations before September 11?
That is a question for documents and evidence.
NYC Council Asked to Preserve the Testimony
Midtown Tribune has also written to the office of New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin requesting that Borovoy’s testimony and related material be preserved and professionally reviewed.
The Council’s Correspondence Unit responded that copies of the request had been shared with appropriate City Council staff.
Midtown Tribune has followed up to ask which office is reviewing the matter and whether the material could be referred to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum or another appropriate historical or archival institution.
The request does not ask the Council or Museum to endorse Borovoy’s allegations.
It asks that potentially significant historical testimony not disappear without professional examination.
Official 25th anniversary information from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum:
https://www.911memorial.org/connect/commemoration/25th-anniversary-commemoration
FBI FOIA Request Filed September 10
On September 10, 2026, Midtown Tribune submitted an electronic Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI.
The FBI has acknowledged receipt of the submission.
The request seeks records concerning:
- information Borovoy says he provided before September 11, 2001;
- his allegation that Russian intelligence or security personnel participated with bin Laden’s network in preparation of a planned attack;
- references to civilian passenger aircraft and an attack on U.S. territory;
- Borovoy’s alleged contacts with FBI personnel in Moscow and the United States;
- any FBI assessment, dissemination, referral or follow-up;
- and the congressional inquiry Borovoy says was conducted around 2003 concerning the earlier information.
Midtown Tribune intends to examine and report significant responsive documents if the FBI releases them.
Twenty-Five Years Later: Follow the Documents
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2001.
The attacks transformed American intelligence, foreign policy and national security and produced consequences that lasted for decades.
Claims as grave as those made by Borovoy, Malsagov and Litvinenko should neither be accepted simply because they are dramatic nor rejected simply because their implications are disturbing.
They should be tested against documentary evidence.
If Borovoy’s account is incorrect, the documentary record may help establish that.
If the FBI received the information he describes before September 11, that too belongs in the historical record.
And if authenticated records independently support any allegation that Russian intelligence personnel were connected to preparations involving bin Laden’s network, the implications would warrant a much deeper historical and governmental examination.
Twenty-five years after September 11, the first obligation is not to a theory. It is to the record.
Sources & Documents
Federal Bureau of Investigation — 9/11 Investigation / PENTTBOM
https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and-criminals/911-investigation
FBI 9/11 Review Commission — Unclassified Report
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/final-9-11-review-commission-report-unclassified.pdf
U.S. Government Publishing Office — 1999 Congressional Hearing
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-106hhrg62963/html/CHRG-106hhrg62963.htm
Konstantin Borovoy — Gary “Yuri” Tabach interview
https://youtu.be/kTp3QtKvKsw
Brighton Beach News — Borovoy 1999 Congressional Material
https://brightonbeachnews.com/rus/borovoi-1999/
Midtown Tribune — “Russia, KGB, Ben Laden and September 11 2001 Attacks”
https://web.archive.org/web/20191206181320/https://midtowntribune.com/2019/09/19/russia-kgb-ben-laden-and-september-11-2001-attacks/
Vladimir Malsagov — Kontinent Interview
https://web.archive.org/web/20220223020924/https://www.kontinent.org/article.php?aid=48e69a4aa604f
Brighton Beach News — Malsagov / “Russian Mafia — FSB”
https://brightonbeachnews.com/rus/кгб-и-11-сентября-в-нью-йорке-книга-влади/
National September 11 Memorial & Museum — 25th Anniversary
https://www.911memorial.org/connect/commemoration/25th-anniversary-commemoration
Ask Midtown Tribune about this story
Answers are grounded first in this article. Search all Midtown Tribune reporting from the main AI Search page.
AI-generated summary. Verify important details in the linked original articles.