Music exec: Whitney Houston looked 'healthy and beautiful' days earlier

Music exec: Whitney Houston looked 'healthy and beautiful' days earlier


Beverly Hills, California (CNN) -- Two loud booms jolted awake the music industry executive in her fifth-floor room of the Beverly Hilton hotel.

The time was 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The thuds seemed to be coming from the room below. The voice of a man, loud and urgent, followed.

It was only later that she learned the news: Whitney Houston, a guest in the room below hers, had died.

Cause of death: Unclear.

Time pronounced: 3:55 p.m., February 11, 2012.

Age: A mere 48.

The shock and grief from fans worldwide was immediate: Houston's pipes and presence, her grit and glamour had made her an icon.

For a decade and a half, she ruled the charts: 170 million albums sold, including seven back-to-back multi-platinum ones.

Numerous No. 1 hits, including the biggest-selling U.S. single of all time, "I Will Always Love You."

Emmys, Grammys, Billboard Music awards. Dozens of them.

While her luster dimmed in recent years as she battled drug addiction, Houston was in the midst of a comeback. A few shows here and there, mostly abroad, and a movie in the works.

She had appeared healthy and beautiful in recent days, said the music executive -- who did not want to be identified because she didn't want reporters hounding her.

Just days before, the exec had seen Houston swimming in the hotel pool with daughter Bobbi Kristina. They looked happy, she said.

What exactly happened Saturday afternoon now awaits a coroner's examination.

Police and fire officials were called to Houston's room at 3:43 p.m., after Houston's bodyguard found her unconscious body.

Medics tried reviving her, but failed.

There were "no obvious signs of criminal intent," said Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen.

Medics removed her body from the hotel room early Sunday morning and an autopsy has been scheduled.

But the county coroner's office could not say when.

Outside, grieving fans laid roses and flickering candles on the front and back entrances of the sprawling complex.

Some sang songs. Others played her music videos on their smartphone.

"Everyone has their own demons, and some overcome them and some never do," said Tya Conerly, referring to Houston's history of drug abuse. "Sometimes life gets the best of us."

Inside the hotel, music industry's biggest names gathered in elegant attire for an annual pre-Grammy party that had been long planned by Houston's mentor, Clive Davis.

"I do have a heavy heart, and I am personally devastated by someone so close to me for so many years," Davis told the gathering of artists and entertainers, that included Tony Bennett, Gladys Knight and Britney Spears.

"My heart goes out to her daughter Bobbi Kristina and her mother, Cissy."

He then asked for a moment of silence.

"We dedicate this evening to her," he said.

Houston had been scheduled to attend the festivities. She had performed as late as Thursday night at a pre-Grammy event in the area, a raspy rendition "Jesus Loves Me" with singer Kelly Price.

The organizers of Sunday's Grammy Awards said they have retooled the show to pay respect to Houston, with the help of singer Jennifer Hudson.

"It's going to be something respectful," said Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the show. "It's not going to be a full-blown tribute. That's too early and it's too fresh at this moment. It's going to be something respectful to Whitney's memory."

But musician Paul Shaffer said he thinks the whole show will double as a tribute to Houston.

"Here is music's happiest night combined with such a sad note," he said. "You got to be some kind of philosopher to make some kind of sense out of this. I certainly can't."

Houston was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 9, 1963, the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston.

Her cousin was Dionne Warwick; her godmother Aretha Franklin.

"You couldn't find a more auspicious template for great expectations," said music critic Gene Seymour.

In the mid-1980s, Davis spotted Houston in a New York nightclub and signed her on the spot.

For the next quarter century, he steered her career and served as her mentor.

"I saw a depth and a range and soul ... that rarely ranks at the top level," he said Thursday. "And that's why we've been working together ever since."

You," "How Will I Know," "The Greatest Love of All," "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)."

In 1991, Houston's commanding performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, just days into the first Persian Gulf War, electrified audiences and became the gold standard for performing the national anthem, according to many music critics.

The next year, she released the soundtrack to her movie "The Bodyguard," one of the top 10 biggest-selling albums of all time.

Her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" for the soundtrack has been interpreted by many but rarely duplicated.

She appeared in several more films in the 1990s, including "Waiting to Exhale."

In 2000, Houston earned her sixth Grammy for best female R&B performance and, a month later, she was named female artist of the decade at the "Soul Train" Music Awards.

But by then, her battle with drugs -- cocaine and marijuana -- and her tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown were taking their toll.

The couple appeared together in the mid-2000s on the reality show "Being Bobby Brown," and had one child together, Bobbi Kristina.


They divorced in 2007. Brown performed at a "New Edition" concert Saturday night in South Haven, Mississippi.

"The atmosphere felt bittersweet," said iReporter Moshiu Knox, who attended the concert with his wife. "Bobby was crying during his performance and at one point had to walk off stage. ... The crowd was emotional and tears were flowing all over the arena."

Video of the concert show Brown asking the audience to pray for the couple's daughter. "If you find the time, can you say a prayer for me because I'm going to need it," he says.

In a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston recalled how her mother arrived one day at her doorstep with sheriff's officers and a court order in a drug intervention.

"(My mother) says, 'I have a court (injunction) here,'" Houston said. "Either you do it my way, or we're just not going to do this at all. We are both going to go on TV, and you're going to retire.'"

She entered rehab and took a long hiatus. Her 2009 release, "I Look To You," was her first in seven years.

"I just took a break, which sometimes you have to," Houston said. "You have to know when to slow that train down and kind of just sit back and relax for a minute."

She recently returned to a movie set for "Sparkle," a remake of the 1976 hit that was loosely based on the story of The Supremes.

It is scheduled to be released nationwide in August, her first movie role since 1996's "The Preacher's Wife."

Music mogul Simon Cowell said Houston's death is one of those events where you remember what you were doing when you heard the news.

"It's that significant," he said. "I'm so sad for her. She was undoubtedly one of the greatest superstars of all time, one of the greatest voices in our lifetime we're likely ever to hear."

Mexico beating victim recovering after surgery

Mexico beating victim recovering after surgery

Sheila Nabb and her husband Andrew are shown in a family photo.

A Calgary woman who was brutally beaten at a Mexican resort has undergone extensive reconstructive surgery and now faces a long recovery, her family said in written statement Thursday.

Last month Sheila Nabb, 37, was found unconscious with extensive facial injuries in an elevator of a five-star resort in Mazatlan, where she was staying with her husband, Andrew Nabb.

She is recovering in an intensive care unit at a Calgary hospital after Saturday’s operation, her husband said.


“Sheila’s injuries were very serious and she has a long recovery ahead, but we are looking forward to having her back home where she belongs,” he said, adding her doctors said the procedure was successful.

"Although she is still sedated, she has been very responsive and we are happy to see small improvements every day," he said.

Nabb also said he was grateful for the concern and support that has been expressed by Canadians across the country.

"I would also like to thank the media for continuing to respect our family’s privacy during this difficult time," he said.

Mexican man to stand trial for beating

Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero, 28, was formally charged with attempted murder by Mexican judge late Wednesday.

With this announcement, the trial can begin, according to Mexican law.

Quintero admitted he hit Nabb in a hotel elevator in a luxury resort in the Mazatlan area, but denied he wanted to kill her. He also said his confession was forced. He has been denied bail.

Nabb, 37, of Calgary was on vacation with her husband at the upscale Riu resort last month when she was found lying in a pool of blood in one of the elevators.

Virtually every bone in her face was shattered after the attack, and she is recovering in a hospital in Calgary.

Quintero was arrested on Jan. 27. Prosecutors and investigators said they based their arrest on a hotel security video that showed him leaving the elevator where Nabb was attacked.

Quintero said in a public statement in Spanish and English that he was drunk and high on cocaine when he encountered Nabb.
Confession forced, says Quintero

He said the Canadian was naked when he began chatting with her in an elevator and he panicked when Nabb began screaming, "He won't let me out" when the doors reopened.

Quintero told reporters that he had blocked her exit with his hand because he wanted to continue talking to her. He said he hit her four to five times in the face when she continued to scream.

The confession before the media holds no legal weight and is a common practice in Mexico.

Quintero said he was forced by police to sign two confessions, including one stating he meant to kill Nabb, as authorities swore at him.

He also told The Canadian Press that he was never allowed to read the confession or speak with a lawyer.

"So I have no idea what my confession says," he said.

Major snow storm targets Denver area

Major snow storm targets Denver area


(CNN) -- Light snow started falling in Denver on Thursday as it braces for a major winter storm that is expected to blast some areas with up to two feet in a few days.

Parts of the region could be plowing out of two feet of snow by Saturday when conditions are expected to gradually taper off.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning starting Thursday evening along the Interstate 25 corridor, including the city of Denver.

Areas east of the city are under a blizzard warning, where snowfall rates of up to 2 inches per hour are expected.

The warnings will remain in effect into late Friday evening.

With the approaching storm expected to cause numerous delays, Denver International Airport announced it had up to 180 cancellations. "This number is very fluid," said Jenny Schiavone, a spokeswoman at the airport.

The airport has nearly 300 pieces of snow equipment and a team of approximately 500 trained snow removal personnel who will work throughout the duration of the storm.

An avalanche watch is posted for the Front Range and Sangre de Cristo mountains until Friday morning. A rapid heavy snow load addition onto the currently weak snowpack structure will quickly raise the avalanche danger Friday, according to The Colorado Avalanche Information Center website.

The storm will be slow moving, so a prolonged period of snow will occur through early Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

With winds gusting 40 mph or higher, blowing snow will make visibility at times near zero and travel on roads could be treacherous, if not impossible.

A number of school districts in the Denver Metro area have announced closures on their websites, including Denver Public Schools, Jefferson County Public Schools and Douglas County Schools.

Temperatures are expected to remain into the 30's into early next week.

Police accused of ignorance as Egyptian soccer faces up to bleak future

Police accused of ignorance as Egyptian soccer faces up to bleak future

(CNN) -- With recriminations and accusations flying in the wake of riots that left 79 football fans dead in the northeastern city of Port Said, the immediate future for Egyptian soccer looks particularly bleak.

Three days of mourning have begun for the victims of the violence that erupted after local team Al-Masry had beaten Cairo-based Al-Ahly 3-1 on Wednesday, but it will take far longer than that to understand how such a tragedy could have occurred.

The domestic league was suspended indefinitely after the deaths just hours before Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzuri sacked the entire leadership of the Egyptian Football Association -- a move that is sure to warrant attention from FIFA.

Soccer's world's governing body stipulates that governments should not tamper with a national soccer federation's affairs, and an international ban for the Egyptian team could follow.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has expressed his sympathy to the victims' families and also asked for a detailed report on what happened.

Given the current confusion about exactly what did take place, he may be waiting a while.

According to Al-Ahly board member, Khaled Mortagy, the security forces present in the stadium at Port Said have a lot to answer for.

"There were huge, even massive security breaches at the game -- the police showed total ignorance," he told CNN.

"The fans moved like a tsunami, and quickly we were looking at a massacre. We believe that this is something that has been well organized.

"I'm sure there are some hidden hands behind this. But we can't really see or we cannot really confirm who is behind all that."

In the wake of the tragedy, a number of Al-Ahly's players have said they are going to retire from the game, but Mortagy hopes they change their mind.

"(The players) are in a very bad shape in terms of morale. They've seen people die in the dressing rooms, which normally doesn't happen in the sports world. I think they have been under a lot of stress.

"Al-Ahly has over 60 million fans and supporters. And I don't think that the players will leave these fans because again the fans need them, and they need the fans."

Blame has also been attached to the aging Port Said stadium, which hosted the fateful game between two of Egypt's biggest clubs.

James Montague, author of "When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone," a book about football and politics in the Middle East, says many arenas in the country are not fit for the purpose.

He told CNN: "I've been to many football grounds across Egypt. We're talking about stadiums built in the 1920s and 1930s, big crumbling concrete bowls that have few exits.

"They are death traps, and this is something that has been waiting to happen.

"There might be 70,000 allowed in a football stadium but 100,000 people come in, or 40,000 are supposed to be there and 70,000 people get in."



There were flashpoints between fans when the teams played each other back in April, and Montague says it is inexplicable the authorities on hand at the stadium did not do more to protect fans.

"At the moment everybody is wondering how and why the police allowed this to happen," he added.

"In any country in the world, if you have a rivalry between two football teams, and you don't police it, there's likely to be a high degree of violence and probably deaths involved.

"In this case, for some reason, the police stood back and didn't police the match properly.

"Obviously the soccer ultras (hardcore fans) had a key role in the revolution, fighting the police and trying to bring down Hosni Mubarak (former Egyptian leader) -- many people are questioning if that is the real reason this wasn't policed properly.

"The league is a mess and I can't see it resuming anytime soon."

Mexican held in Canadian's beating was drunk, on drugs

Mexican held in Canadian's beating was drunk, on drugs

Sheila Nabb and her husband Andrew are shown in a family photo.

A Mexican man arrested in connection with the brutal beating of Canadian tourist Sheila Nabb says he was drunk and had been using cocaine on the night of the attack.

Authorities trotted out Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero, 28, and he spoke to reporters in both English and Spanish on Saturday. The state attorney from Sinaloa said Quintero accepted his guilt in a statement to authorities, admitting that he beat Nabb at a five-star resort in Mazatlan last weekend.

His statement about his alcohol and drug use was delivered in Spanish and reported in English by a translator.

On Friday, state attorney Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez said they had arrested a man who was identified through a blood sample.

Nabb, 37, was found unconscious last weekend in an elevator at the Hotel Riu, where she was staying with her husband.

Gomez said on Saturday that Quintero had stated that he and a Canadian friend had spent the early hours of Jan. 20 drinking heavily. When the beer ran out, they decided to head to the resort to keep drinking at the 24-hour bar there.

At Saturday's new conference, Quintero said in English that he took a separate elevator in the hotel and on one of the floors, a female guest entered. She was naked, he said.

Quintero said that he tried to talk to the woman and she answered normally and didn't seem to be angry or afraid.

But the two then argued, apparently because the Mexican man would not let her leave.

"When the elevator doors opened so she would step out, I put my hand on the door," the suspect said. "I wanted to keep talking to her.

"She got afraid when I wouldn't let her out. She started yelling, 'He won't let me out.'"

When she began to scream and call for help, the accused said he became scared. Quintero said he told the woman he was leaving, but she wouldn't stop screaming.

"I covered her mouth and said, 'Please don't yell,"' the suspect said. "But she continued yelling. She got more afraid when I covered her mouth.

"And then I hit her four or five times in the face with my fist, and then I left."

Through a translator, Quintero said, "I was very, very drunk." He also said he had been using cocaine.

Gomez said Quintero would likely be charged with attempted homicide. The suspect must be brought before a judge within 48 hours of being detained. There were no indications the victim had been sexually assaulted, the attorney general said.

The accused was known, according to police, to visit tourist establishments and become friendly with foreigners.

"This person was discovered by investigators," Gomez said. "[The suspect] has the ability to speak English very well, and often stays in the hotels and mingles with the tourists. That is [the theory] we are working on and fortifying."

Authorities are trying to find out whether Quintero was involved in other attacks on tourists, Gomez said.
Nabb now in Calgary hospital

Robert Prosser, Nabb’s uncle, said she arrived in Calgary on Friday morning via air ambulance, according to the Calgary Herald.

Prosser said her family is relieved she is back in the country and thanked everyone for their prayers. Nabb, who was raised in Nova Scotia, now resides in Calgary with her husband.

Investigators were unable to speak with Nabb, who can't talk due to her injuries.

"The victim could not identify the suspect," Gomez told Friday's news conference. "[Thursday] night she was transported with injuries to the chin and jaw bone while under sedation."

Sandusky asks judge to let him visit with his grandchildren

Sandusky asks judge to let him visit with his grandchildren

Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach accused of sexually abusing boys, is asking the judge to grant visitation with his grandchildren.

(CNN) -- Despite being accused of child sex abuse, Jerry Sandusky is asking a judge to modify the terms of his bail so he can see his grandchildren, according to court documents.

Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was charged in November with sexually abusing young boys over a 14-year period. Prosecutors contend he met many of the boys through his charity, The Second Mile.

Sandusky, who has denied the charges, was released on a $100,000 bail in November and barred by a Pennsylvania judge from having unsupervised visits with his grandchildren. The judge also prohibited the children from staying overnight at Sandusky's home.

This week, Sandusky's lawyer filed a motion urging a judge to allow him to visit with his grandchildren because his "eleven minor grandchildren... have expressed their sadness to their parents about not being able to visit or talk" with him, the court documents said.

Sandusky is asking the judge to grant visitation with his grandchildren at his home and to allow him to communicate with them via phone, email, text and Skype, the documents said.

The motion also requests that Sandusky be allowed to have his friends visit his home, and that he be allowed to travel to meet with his attorney and private investigators work on his case.

A hearing on the issue is scheduled for February 10 at the Centre County Courthouse in Pennsylvania, authorities said.

Longshot presidential candidate to put abortion in your face during Super Bowl

Longshot presidential candidate to put abortion in your face during Super Bowl

Randall Terry will be on the Democratic ticket in several states this year.

(CNN) -- It was tongue in cheek, blogger Sophia Brugato said, because let's be honest: Tim Tebow, for all his athletic attributes, isn't the biggest scorer.

A sports buff who typically writes about basketball and women's issues, Brugato didn't expect her quip to be taken so seriously that death threats would follow, that the national media would look up from elections or that ads featuring aborted fetuses would air during the Super Bowl on February 5.

Brugato sparked the firestorm when she asked her fellow supporters of abortion rights to kick some cash to the cause when the Denver Broncos quarterback scored. The long-shot presidential candidate now funding the Super Bowl ads was incensed she would invoke Tebow, an adoptee of the Christian right, in a pro-choice campaign and considered her column a call to murder.

"She was raising money to kill babies, and we're raising money to save them. Fight fire with fire," said lifelong Republican and anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, who in January 2011 put his name on the Democratic ticket in several states, which would ensure he could air the graphic ads during election season.

Section 315 of the FCC Telecommunications Act says stations must air ads for candidates for federal office and are prohibited from altering the content. That means they can't refuse to run political ads even if the ads contain material the stations would ordinarily reject.

Terry said Friday he had already purchased air time in 13 markets with upcoming primaries: eight during pregame and five that will air in Ada, Oklahoma; Grand Junction, Colorado; Paducah, Kentucky; and Joplin and Springfield, Missouri, during the big game.

The markets were chosen based on where Terry felt the ads would have the most impact.

"(President Barack) Obama is going to carry California if he's found with foreign children in the Lincoln Bedroom, and the GOP will carry Texas if it's found that the nominee owns a brothel," Terry said.

'Enemy outside your gate'

Obama and the evangelicals and Catholics who voted for him in 2008 are the main targets of Terry's ad, but David Lewis, who is vying for Republican House Speaker John Boehner's Ohio seat, and Angela Michael, who is challenging Rep. John Shimkus, R-Illinois, are running similar ads in their districts.

Terry said he considers both GOP incumbents enemies of his cause because of their stands on the abortion issue and "an enemy outside your gate makes you vigilant; an enemy inside your gate can make you dead."

He estimated he has raised about $40,000 so far and, ideally, would like to see the ads air in more than two dozen cities spanning seven states.

Brugato didn't foresee the backlash. The whole mess began because while she enjoyed the underdog quarterback story that consumed the sports world before the Broncos were dispatched from the playoffs on January 14, Tebow's stance on abortion made her uncomfortable.

Particularly unnerving was a Focus on the Family commercial two years ago in which Tebow's mother, Pam, said she had ignored a doctor's recommendation to abort the future Heisman Trophy winner to save her own life. The irony, Brugato said, is that Pam Tebow was given a choice.

Brugato made her inner conflict the theme of a December 13 column on the Abortion Gang website, which calls its writers "unapologetic activists for reproductive justice."

"How can I support a guy that's openly anti-choice?" she wrote. "This is the same man that used the Super Bowl to a) build his reputation and brand as the saintliest saint of an athlete that ever lived, and b) raise money for an anti-choice organization that would deny the right to abortion to millions of women that need it. Yuck."

As part of her missive, she created a #10forTebow hashtag on Twitter and urged her readers to donate $10 to a pro-choice group every time Tebow tossed a touchdown.

"It was more, 'This guy's at the forefront of pop culture and let's remind everyone he's a great football player, but he's anti-choice,' " she said. "(The call for donations) was a random thought that kind of came into my mind, and I just put it out there knowing he wasn't going to do a lot of scoring -- and it just took off from there."

Hate mail rolled in, and not the normal hate mail to which she was accustomed as a commentator on women's issues and her beloved Portland Trail Blazers basketball team. There were calls for her death -- one asserting she should have been aborted herself -- and threats of rape.

It was "disturbing enough to have to forward it to the FBI," Brugato said.

Pregnant teen opts against abortion

The 26-year-old Portland State University student even had a chat with her 7-year-old son, not only about the importance of protecting yourself on the Internet, but also about why mom should "stand up for people without a voice," she said.

Brugato's experience as a mother gives her an interesting perspective on abortion. Pregnant as a senior in high school, she went to Planned Parenthood for testing and counseling.

Just 18, she was "harboring illusions about adulthood" and didn't appreciate the responsibilities or financial obligations that came with being a parent. Having a child seemed romantic, but she said Planned Parenthood helped her understand the seriousness of the situation and laid out her options.

Her parents, who were upset, and the teachers at her Catholic high school, who were pushing for adoption, offered support. Ultimately, she decided on motherhood.

Despite the vicious responses to her Abortion Gang column, Brugato said she has received ample support. Portland is considered fairly liberal, and folks around town and campus have offered encouragement. Many people wrote her to say they had donated to abortion rights groups.

But others co-opted her hashtag, calling on abortion opponents to donate $10 to a pro-life organization each time Tebow put up six.

Then there was Terry, who took Brugato's words personally and lashed out.

Terry, who has been arrested almost 50 times while protesting, is no stranger to political theatrics. In 2009, he donned a doctor's scrubs and lab coat and stood outside then-Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd's Charleston, West Virginia, office with a man dressed as Obama, who handed him plastic babies. Terry stabbed each one with a scalpel and tossed it over his shoulder. He also mimicked stabbing an elderly woman to register his opposition to the administration's health care package, which some critics argue promotes euthanasia.

"We're trying to jolt people back into reality," he said at the time.

After Brugato's column last month, Terry wrote a letter to his "pro-life, Christian friends," that said the blogger's "despicable challenge has the ring of a horror film: 'Every time you do something good, we will kill an innocent person.' "

He further called Brugato a child killer and implored, "Let's make them rue the day they attacked Tim Tebow because of his Christian faith and because of his pro-life ad that he ran in the Super Bowl of 2010 by showing pro-life ads in Super Bowl 2012 that grab the attention of the nation."

Love it or hate it

Brugato was shocked by the letter's tone and was concerned that "some of the language was meant as a dog whistle to the more extreme anti-abortion folks out there."

She was even more disturbed by the ads that Terry's campaign had produced, including one that likened abortion to civil rights atrocities and the Holocaust.

"It's just so offensive. It's going to offend more people than it will bring to his cause," she said.

The planned Super Bowl ad begins with a brief warning imposed over Obama's face before Terry says, "Abortion is murder. The innocent blood of 50 million babies cries out to God from our sewers and landfills. We must make it a crime to murder them, or heaven will judge America."

Claiming Christians who vote for Obama "have blood on their hands," the ad features several unsettling images, including two fetuses curled up inside a rosary and a headless fetus next to a crucifix. Another segment of the ad features a fetus' arm lying on a dime.

Similar ads ran during the Iowa and New Hampshire GOP contests, the latter prompting CNN affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, to pre-emptively explain to its audience that it cannot edit the ad, "even if it is libelous, inflammatory or otherwise offensive to the community."

As for the response in Iowa, Terry said, "What do you think? People were enraged or they loved it. There's no middle ground."

He makes no apologies for the ads' disturbing content because "using these images is what's required for peaceful political revolution." He points to the results that disturbing images have historically had on wars, child slavery and the civil rights movement.

NARAL Pro-Choice America did not return messages seeking comment on the appropriateness of the images. Nor did Planned Parenthood, though a representative sent an e-mail containing information on two of Terry's many arrests and some past inflammatory remarks.

Super Bowl the right audience?

Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, endorses the ads, if not the venue. During their Face the Truth Tours, members of his group congregate at major intersections across the country holding aloft similar images of fetuses.

His group places people before the targeted intersection with warning signs so drivers can take alternate routes if they choose, Scheidler said. He knows the images are disturbing, and that's the point: to emboss in someone's mind a gruesome image of abortion in hopes that it affects their philosophy or advice to loved ones later.

"We don't show these pictures to make friends or be popular," he said, adding that while some people are moved by intellectual or religious arguments, "others will be persuaded by seeing for themselves the injustice."

Scheidler said he hopes Terry's Super Bowl tactic is successful, even if it isn't one he'd embrace.

"I like to respect that time for family fun. There's a time for families to have entertainment and not to be dealing with the grave issues of the day," he said. "It's not anything I would do, but I'm not going to say it's wrong for Mr. Terry to do it."

To those who label Terry an extremist, he welcomes the tag, saying "extremism is the essence of Christianity. ... No successful social movements were moderate."

He isn't airing his ads solely to be controversial, he said. He's wanted to be president since he was a boy, and though he doesn't expect to beat Obama in the primary (the president took 98% of the vote in Iowa and out-dueled Terry 82%-1% in New Hampshire), Terry hopes that "by putting babies out front that that will break his back in the 2012 general election."

"I'm looking to create the debate over whether a Christian can ethically vote for Obama," he said. "I know that we will prevail. I know we will make it a crime to kill unborn babies."