User blog comment:Master Sima Yi/Assassinews 10-05'12 — World Gameplay Premiere/@comment-4473559-20120514145232/@comment-1888015-20120516204933

"It's against the Assassins' moral code to control people."

Not necessarily in a way that the Templars use. For example, a guard is contained behind a fence you couldn't get past, but the lever to advance was on the guard's side. You could use the Apple/Other Piece of Eden to control them to walk over and pull it.

Also, that statement seems a little contradictory, since they've been influencing politics in the Modern times. As well as that, Ezio used the Apple to make various Borgia guards kill other ones, so it's not like the Assassins are against brainwashing.

I can see how the Assassins would control events to benefit their cause of free will, but not like the Templars, who do it to prevent people from making mistakes.