In mid-December, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of claims filed pursuant to the Alien Tort Statute against Occidental Petroleum. Plaintiffs in the case argued that Occidental should be held liable for the deaths of three union leaders in Colombia who were killed by the Colombian National Army’s 18th Brigade in 2004...Occidental’s Colombian subsidiary, Occidental de Colombia, Inc. (“OxyCol”) and Ecopetrol, a Colombian-state owned oil company...and jointly built the Caño Limón pipeline in Colombia...[I]n exchange for increased military support in protecting the pipeline from attacks...the companies began providing funding to the military...Beginning in 2002, the United States Government was also providing large amounts of aid to help the 18th Brigade secure the pipeline...[The court found that] "Plaintiffs’ claims are inextricably bound to an inherently political question — the propriety of the United States’ decision to provide $99 million worth of training and equipment to the 18th Brigade at the same time and for the same purpose as Occidental allegedly providing $6.3 million — and are thus beyond the jurisdiction of our courts"...