Two observations
1/ The Air France F/O (50 years old) probably does not speak English very fluently which more than likely created more confusion and misunderstanding. I can imagine that when he realised that things were going sour he tried to calm down the security staff member in a rather clumsy way.
2/ I can see the grin on the face of the security staff involved. Finally we have a frog that we can stick on our fork. The anti-French atmosphere must still be around after the Iraq war.
Too far fetched?