Long before he became known worldwide as the NSA contractor who exposed top-secret US government surveillance programs, Edward Snowden worked for a Japanese anime company run by friends and went by the nicknames “The True HOOHA” and “Phish.”
In 2002, he was 18 years old, a high-school dropout and his parents had just divorced. On the tiny anime company’s website, he wrote of his skills with video games and popularity with women.
As an adult, the former CIA employee has not left much of a digital trail on the internet. Snowden, who turns 30 later this month, does not appear to be active on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter - at least not under his own name.
But the website of Ryuhana Press, a now defunct start-up that had sold anime art, offers a glimpse of Snowden as a youth. As its web editor, Snowden’s profile page is a mix of truth, sarcasm and silly jokes.
For example, he listed his correct birthday - June 21, 1983 - and noted that it falls on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. But he also claimed to be 37 years old and to have fathered two preteen children.
“I really am a nice guy,” Snowden wrote on his profile page. “You see, I act arrogant and cruel because I was not hugged enough as a child, and because the public education system turned it’s (sic) wretched, spiked back on me.”