Action Committee (PAC) to support political candidates for federal office. ADC's Organizing Department mobilizes the local chapters' efforts and directs ADC's national campaigns. ADC convenes an annual Convention. Convention speakers have included government officials like Department of Homeland Security civil rights officer Daniel W. Sutherland and then-United States Secretary of State Colin L. Powell The ADC Research Institute (ADCRI), founded in 1981, is a Section 501(c)(3) educational organization that sponsors research studies, seminars, conferences and publications about the discrimination faced by Arab Americans as well as promotes a better understanding of Arab cultural heritage. ADC's “Reaching the Teachers” campaign provides lesson plans, background articles, fact sheets, bibliographies and other resources to educators. ADC's intern program for undergraduate, graduate and law students trains Arab-American leaders. The institute offers a bibliography of anti-Arab bias. In 2008 the Institute issued a lengthy report on hate crimes and discrimination against Arab Americans. History and activities 1980s and 1990s During the 1970s American Arabs' concerns about negative media images grew as a result of the Arab–Israeli conflict and Arab countries' defeat in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War grew. Founder James Abourezk initially was motivated by unfair stereotyping of Arabs in media, anti-Arabism in general and the Abscam sting where Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") agents posed as Arabs. He brought together more than 60 Arab leaders from around the nation who agreed to form the committee. Abourezk has stated: "When we started up people used to ask us why we started. Now they ask us for our opinion on things.” After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, ADC began organizing demonstrations and marches. The war greatly increased Arab Americans' willingness to speak out in general, as well as groups' use of the term "Arab American" to self-identify. In 1985 ADC offices suffered a series of violent attacks. On August 16, a bomb exploded in the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee office in Boston, severely injuring two police officers. On October 29 an arson fire damaged the ADC office in Washington, D.C. On October 11, the day after the ending of the Achille Lauro incident where a Jewish American died, Alex Odeh, ADC's west-coast regional director, was killed in a bombing as he opened the door to his office. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suspected Jewish Defense League and Jewish Defense Organization members. Although Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin, who lived in Southern California, made some