Given Mubarak's age I have little doubt that there has been ongoing discussions about the succession problem, or that the US Government has been involved. This might come out in Wikileaks. I personally doubt that this involved Gene Sharp or his work. Mubarak's military might discuss with the US contingency plans for dealing with the inevitable, but when the protests broke out I would expect that those plans involved the orderly transfer of power to Mubarak's son. I would think that no Egyptian officer would even discuss alternatives to the official plan except one on one with US officials, if then. Even to broach the subject of succession alternatives would likely have spooked them. Their first thought would likely have been: "Am I being set up?"

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."