A U.S. federal appeals court on Monday threw out a human rights lawsuit brought against Occidental Petroleum Corp over allegations that it played a role in killings carried out by the Colombian military in 2004...The plaintiffs claimed that Houston-based Occidental, which operates a pipeline near the Venezuelan border, provided funding to the [Colombian National Army] making it liable for the actions of the soldiers...Colombian government officials said at the time the people killed were guerrilla members who had attacked soldiers. The family members who sued for monetary damages said the union members were killed in part because they had been critical of the environmental impact of the oil industry. In an unsigned opinion, the appeals court said U.S. courts could not hear the case because it was an inherently political question...[Also refers to Ecopetrol, Royal Dutch Shell]