Ten years before 29-year-old Booz Allen contractor Edward Snowden undertook the most "significant or helpful leak... in American history" he was "Edowaado," a goofy anime fan working at a small anime art company.

Reuters uncovered Snowden's profile from his short stint working, age 18, at the no-longer-in-business Ryuhana Press. (It's described it as "cheeky," which is a nice way of saying "dorky.") When reporters contacted the company's former operators about the site, Snowden's profile was taken down. There was some good stuff, though:

Photographs uploaded by friends for Snowden's 19th birthday show a young man pulling down his pants for his colleagues, putting a clothespin on his chest, and dancing. A blog entry from a company employee teased, "Who is he? What does he do? Does he really love himself as much as his shameless marketing would have you believe?" [...]

Snowden said he liked playing the popular fighting video game Tekken. He was so skilled that he attracted a gathering of fans at the 2002 Anime USA convention, wrote a co-worker on another part of the site. "He tends to spontaneously be a ray of sunshine and inspiration. He's a great listener, and he's eager to help people improve themselves."

From nerdy Tekken player to leaker hero in just a decade. There's hope for everyone.

The profile itself is still available on the Internet Archive here: