1. In 1975 the US Government knowingly helped Iraq obtain the technology to build its first chemical warfare plant.

2. In 1975 the US Government knowingly helped Iraq build its first chemical warfare plant.

actually, there are quite large differences between the two sentences. 2. implies the US actually aided in construction, 1. implies that the US supplied forbidden information....BOTH imply that the US

but both are different from a possible #3...

3. In 1975 the US Government helped Iraq obtain the technology to build a chemical plant, not knowing that it would later be used for chemical warfare.

The complete truth can be obfuscated in many ways with diferent locutions.....I doubt that very many actually KNOW exactly what happened.